EXCLUSIVE: Hero driver finds boy running along feeder road, calls authorities

A school teacher grabbed a young boy just in time, saving him from danger near a freeway.

Roberto Serrano was driving near the North Loop Feeder Road near Irvington Tuesday evening when he spotted a boy running on and along the roadway. The five-year-old boy was wearing only his underwear. Serrano, a father of three, was among several drivers who stopped. He got to him just in time.

"I grabbed him and we both fell and the truck stopped right here," said Serrano, who motioned as he walked along the busy feeder road.

"When I saw him, I was like, oh my god, I've got to get to him. He's almost in the street," he said.

On Wednesday, Eyewitness News was there as Serrano checked on the boy named Alex. After the ordeal, police reunited him with his father at their home just a few blocks away from where he was caught.

"He has behavioral problems. He runs away from school. He runs away from here," explained Richard Chavez, the boy's father. Chavez, a single father, says Alex took off and for medical reasons he is not able to run after him. Alex got a head start and Chavez went looking for him in his car.

"I try to talk to him and tell him you can't do this, you can't do that. It's been very difficult," Chavez said.

Chavez is grateful to Serrano and to the others for stopping. Serrano told Eyewitness News it was instinctive for him to try to help the child. Not only is he a father, he's also a school teacher at HISD's Cornelius Elementary.