Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has honored a Brooklyn Center woman who alerted authorities when she spotted a stolen vehicle with a missing child in it.
Barbara Gusse picked up her bird-watching binoculars and identified an SUV across from her house in a church parking lot, as one that was stolen being sought in an Amber Alert on Saturday. Police came and rescued the child, who was still strapped in the back seat.
Frey proclaimed Tuesday as Barbara Gusse Day to honor her actions.
"You have quite literally saved a life and you should be honored as such," Frey said in a video posted on social media. It showed him giving the proclamation to Gusse in the front yard of her home.
Police say the car was stolen around 12:40 p.m. after the child's mother strapped him in the car seat. She then ran into a house at the 4200 block of N. Humboldt Avenue. When she returned the vehicle was gone.
Gusse, a retired Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board employee and grandmother, saw the vehicle and identified it shortly after the Amber Alert was issued at 2:15 p.m.
"Oh thank you so much," Gusse said in the video as she received the framed proclamation. "But really, I was just helping."
