A freshman in high school who describes himself as a typical teen is now being hailed as a hero for finding a 5-year old girl abducted in Lancaster Township, Pa., Lancaster Online reports.
Temar Boggs had a hunch he'd find the little girl who was abducted on Thursday, as he and six friends joined police on a search that night. Forming their own little search party, the teens walked through nearby woods and followed a creek where officers told them the little girl might have gone.
"We got all of our friends to go look for her. We made our own little search party," Boggs, 15, told Lancaster Online on Saturday, though he didn't know the girl or her family.
When the teens returned to nearby Lancaster Arms apartments, police officers and TV news crews were gathering around a whole block that Boggs said was completely filled, and it was then that the teen had a feeling he knew where the missing girl was.
"I had the gut feeling that I was going to find the little girl," he said. He and another friend, Chris Garcia, rode bikes down area streets looking for her when a maroon car caught Boggs' eye, striking him as suspicious. The driver of the car, an older white man, turned around when it got to the top of a hill where several police officers were gathered, and began quickly turning in and out of side streets. Boggs and his friend got close enough to spot a little girl inside the maroon car.
Boggs said he thought it was her in the car, and he and Garcia chased the car on his bike through the maze of a neighborhood for about fifteen minutes.
The teen said that when the driver spotted Boggs and Garcia, he turned around, stopped the car and pushed the little girl out before driving off, likely spooked by being followed. Boggs didn't see where the car went, but he instantly saw the abducted 5-year old, who stood there for a moment before running to him.
"She runs to my arms and said, 'I need to see my mommy,' " Boggs said. Deciding it wasn't safe to ride back with her on his back after doing so for a bit, he carried the little girl while Garcia pedaled along, guiding the bike Boggs has been using.
When the friends returned to Lancaster Arms and an officer was summoned, Boggs said that the little girl was reluctant to leave his side to go to the official.
"She didn't want to leave me because she thought they were going to do something to her. I said, 'No, it's OK,' " he said.
Police later explained that the girl's abductor had taken the little girl for ice cream, and there were indications that she had been assaulted.
After meeting the girl's family, Boggs said they "were just saying that I was a hero, that I was a guardian angel and that it was amazing that I was there and was able to find the girl," though he didn't see himself as a hero.
"I'm just a normal person who did a thing that anybody else would do," he said, describing himself as a typical kid who plays football, basketball and runs track. He likes sneakers and has dreams of being a sneaker designer if his goal of becoming a professional athlete doesn't work out.
"It was like fate, it was like meant for me and Chris to be there. If we wouldn't have left [to look for the girl] who knows what would have happened to the little girl," he said. He admitted he woke up in the middle of the night realizing he might have saved the girl's life. "It was a blessing for me to make that happen," he said.
His mother, Tamika Boggs, told reporters she is very proud of her son. "You just hope you raise your child the right way...He's learning what I tell him, to help others," she said.
Click here to see a video of Temar Boggs recounting his experience discovering the abducted 5-year old girl.
