At a high rise hotel in Alicante, Spain, 29-year-old Brazilian painter Felipe David Souza was working on a room when he heard commotion outside. Not the hallway, but outside on the balcony's. People were yelling get back inside. He went to the balcony to see what they were talking about. A 6 year old boy had climbed over the railing and was now clinging to the balcony 50 feet above the ground. He either didn't have the strength to climb back, or was frozen in fear.
Felipe was on the same floor a few balconies over. He realized he may be the only one in position to help the boy so he climbed over the railing of his balcony and began shimmying towards the child. “I did it without thinking”. Felipe was concerned the boy would freak out and let go. “I was staring at the child to keep him calm, willing him not to move. It’s a short distance to get to him but it felt so long.”
As you can see in the video it took him less than a minute to get there, but there's no question the child was in serious danger that entire time. Police came to investigate and reported the entire family who was visiting from France, had decided to take a nap after their morning tourist activities. The boy snuck out of his bed while the parents were asleep and got himself in this predicament. They woke to the same yelling that alerted Felipe and were running to the balcony just as Felipe got him over.
Photo: martin-dm / E+ / Getty Images