Mother 'hysterical' after baby in car seat falls out of moving car

MANKATO, Minn. (FOX 9) - Chad Mock has been a truck driver for more than 20 years, and he's seen some pretty crazy stuff on the roads - but nothing like what he saw Monday morning.

Mock said he's just glad he happened to be in the right place at the right time.

"As I was coming up to the corner, I noticed a car going around the corner and something fell out," said Mock. "As I got closer--it looked like a doll--possibly a doll in a car seat."

But it wasn't a doll. It was a two-year-old girl still strapped in her car seat that flew out of a moving car onto a busy downtown street in Mankato.

"The car seat came out and pretty much dropped straight down, and instead of - luckily - not landing on the child, it actually landed on the car seat itself. It actually took all of its force," he said.

Mock was driving right behind the car when the door somehow opened. He immediately pulled over and ran into the street to protect the toddler. He captured the whole incident on his dash camera, which has since been shared thousands of times.

"There was no apparent injury to the child; the child was not crying. It was not upset too badly, especially given the circumstance," he said.

Mock said the car drove off, but a woman came back to the scene about 20 minutes later and told first responders the little girl was her daughter.

"She was pretty hysterical as, obviously, a mother would be in that situation," he said.

As a truck driver for about two decades, he thought he'd seen it all until Monday morning.

"This has to be the craziest, almost most upsetting situation to look at," he said.

It's unclear who was driving the car or if the mother was in the car at the time.

So far, no one has been arrested and no charges have been filed yet, but the Blue Earth County Attorney is still looking over the case.