A supermarket manager in Puebla, Mexico, is being celebrated as a local hero after he saved a toddler from being struck by a speeding car in a dramatic rescue caught on video.
The manager, Luis Cruz, was working on his day off on Sunday, filling in for five no-show employees, when his store nearly became the site of a tragedy.
“It was fate,” Mr. Cruz said in a video interview on Wednesday from the supermarket, Super King, El Rey del Ahorro (The King of Savings). Typically, he would be inside working on administrative tasks, he said, but because the store was short-staffed, he was outside helping move items.
Security camera footage taken outside the supermarket shows Mr. Cruz, 34, moving a pallet of toilet paper when the toddler runs out of the entrance and toward a busy thoroughfare with six lanes of traffic. Her speed immediately drew Mr. Cruz’s attention, he said.
For a split second, it looks as if the toddler might reverse course, before she seemingly changes her mind and darts back toward the street. Mr. Cruz takes after her. The young girl’s mother sprints out of the store toward her daughter, but she slips and falls mere inches from grabbing her.
“I saw the mother reaching out her hand, but she doesn’t quite catch her,” Mr. Cruz said, speaking in Spanish. “So, at that moment I decided to quicken my pace because the danger is imminent, and I see a car coming.”
The toddler’s trajectory seems to be headed into the path of an oncoming S.U.V. But at the last moment, Mr. Cruz snatches her, dives sideways and rolls her out of harm’s way.
“It was a father’s instinct more than anything, the instinct to protect,” said Mr. Cruz, who has four children. “A child is the most precious thing we have in life.”
The toddler’s parents collected her, thanked Mr. Cruz and hustled back into the store. Mr. Cruz, who injured his knee during the rescue, can be seen in the video limping back to the pallet of toilet paper to continue his work.
“I just kept working, because that’s what I do,” he said. “Honestly, I didn’t expect things to turn out this way — to go so viral, or to receive that kind of appreciation.”
On Monday, the supermarket gave Mr. Cruz a manager of the year award and a large, ceremonial check for 20,000 pesos (around $1,200) for his “courageous and timely action” that demonstrated “a strong sense of humanity.”
“Today you didn’t save profits, you didn’t save a sale, you didn’t save an operation,” read an Instagram post by the supermarket’s account. “Today, you saved a life.”
Footage of Mr. Cruz’s actions rebounded across the internet this week and has made him something of a sensation in the state of Puebla, where he was raised. He has since met with the governor, received invitations from restaurants across his city for free meals and has chatted with customers who visited the store to praise him.
Mr. Cruz said he planned to invest his award money in the blinds business he runs with his wife, and perhaps buy a new television.
Looking back at his actions, Mr. Cruz said they were a reflection of his values.
“How would I have felt if something had happened to the girl, knowing I could have done something?” he said. “Those kinds of values have always been instilled in me. I believe in doing the right thing.”
While he didn’t start out seeking praise, he said the reaction from the public, which has been overwhelmingly positive, had been an added bonus.
“I mean, really, who wouldn’t want to be called a hero?” he said.
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