Some carpenters working on a lake home in Alexander County, North Carolina (halfway between Charlotte and Boone) thought they heard a cat screaming, but soon realized it was a child yelling “help me!” The men saw that a kid had fallen into the lake and deputies say that’s when one of the carpenters,Scott Lingerfelt, jumped into the water and swam 40 yards to grab him. “It was cold,” Lingerfelt said. “I said, ‘Lord, you gotta help me with it. Give me the strength to get across there.’ As I got across, I could see (the boy) and started talking with him saying, ‘Bud, you’re gonna be OK. We’re gonna get to you.’”
He managed to make it to the child in the frigid 45 degree water and get him safely back to shore. The child’s mother, Jan Bentley, says her six-year-old son has autism and had wandered ot the back door while she was cleaning the bathroom. She’s grateful a stranger risked his life to save him. The boy was checked out at the Catawba Valley Medical Center, he’s okay and so is his good Samaritan, who will be recognized by the Alexander County Sheriff’s Office for his efforts.
“God put me there at the right place at the right time,” Lingerfelt says. “I was doing something I hope someone would do for my boy.”