The terrifying moment unfolded Friday in an intersection in Mesa that Adriana Bello says is always very busy. That's when she saw a 2-year-old boy wearing nothing but a diaper run across the street.
"I'm honking my horn thinking, you know, get out of the way... as if he could hear me," she said.
Two oncoming cars swerved and narrowly avoided hitting the toddler before another woman was able to bring the boy to safety.
The toddler's father, Alexander Schabel, says he wasn't home at the time of the incident. The child's mother was watching five kids when she left to go to the gas station.
"She took the big kids down there. She says that the kids were sleeping. I don't know if they were or not, but she didn't lock the door," Schabel said.
He says he was alerted to the situation by his Ring doorbell that showed a stranger on his porch.
"Some random lady was holding my baby... She was like your kid almost got run over in the street."
Schabel says he's relieved his child is home safe.
"People need to pay attention while they're driving because things like that could happen."
And neighbors are grateful the incident did not end in tragedy.
"It is definitely a miracle that that child was not injured at all," Bello said.
The Arizona Department of Child Safety is investigating the incident. No arrests have been made and the boy has been returned safely to his grandmother.