A Yarmouth man leaped into Barnstable Harbor to rescue a 5-year-old girl moments after she lost her balance and fell in, officials said.
Gary Richard was eating lunch with his girlfriend in their car Saturday afternoon near the Ocean Street docks when they saw the girl fall in the water. She had been throwing rocks from a dock into the harbor.
"I dropped my sandwich and ran," the 39-year-old told the Cape Cod Times.
Richard, who moved to Yarmouth from Fall River six months ago, looked down from the edge of the dock and saw the girl in the water about 6 feet below. "I saw her face and I just jumped," Richard said, describing the water as freezing. "It was so cold, it was painful."
The girl reached for him and Richard grabbed her under one of her arms. Richard held her up as the boyfriend of the girl's mother, who had been working on a boat nearby, took the child into his arms, police said.
Autumn Campinha, 5, of Barnstable appeared to be uninjured but was brought to Cape Cod Hospital as a precaution.
I have to admit, when I think of Massachusetts and drowning girls, the first thing I think of is Ted (hic!) Kennedy. It's nice to read a story about the opposite behavior.
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