The Department of Children and Families is investigating after a rideshare driver found a 2-year-old girl wandering alone outside in below- freezing temperatures in Worcester early Wednesday morning, officials confirmed.
Officers responding to a report of a found child on Country Club Boulevard about 4:50 a.m. spoke with a Lyft driver who said he found a girl who was borderline hypothermic and standing in snow in the Lincoln Village apartment complex, according to Worcester police.
Ashton Mazyck, 28, said he was ending his shift around 3 a.m. when he spotted the barefoot and shivering girl in 15-degree temperatures.
“I looked over and said, ‘sweetheart you’re OK. We’re going to keep you safe,'” Mazyck told 7News.
Mazyck brought the girl inside and called his mother, Vida, to help warm her up.
“Her feet were just encased and encrusted with sand, ice, and salt,” she said.
After warming the girl up with blankets and tea, the Mazyck family called 911.
“I tried to give her some tea to drink but she was shaking so violently she couldn’t even get a sip down,” Vida explained. “She was just that cold.”
The toddler was taken to an area hospital for evaluation, where doctors determined she was not harmed.
Investigators believe the girl, who was being cared for by her grandmother, woke up in the middle of the night and figured out how to get out of the house.
She has since been released to her mother, who was working an overnight shift at the time.
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