A Few Good Men

Jon Wentworth was guiding a vehicle out of the Oil Changers garage Monday afternoon when he spotted a child walking in the middle of the street.

At around 3 p.m., the 5-year-old girl was seen alone and walking defensively along a median strip in front of the shop on Portola Avenue, near Murrieta Boulevard.

"What is she doing in the middle of the street?" Wentworth wondered.

And once he could see she was frightened his instincts kicked in.

"I need to get her to the sidewalk and figure out what's going on," he said of his initial reaction to seeing the lost girl.

Wentworth stopped traffic and safely walked the girl to the shop's lot.

"Cars were going 40 mph and not even slowing down — that kind of irked me," he said. "She definitely was scared and I was scared for her."

Wentworth said the girl didn't know where she lives and couldn't provide an address.

Carl Waller, who manages the Oil Changers shop, asked employee Timmy B. Smith Jr. to call police once he found out the girl was lost.

Livermore Police Sgt. Keith Graves said the girl was dropped off at her aunt and uncle's home because her mother had to go to work.

"The girl wants to see her mother and just walks off unbeknownst to her aunt and uncle," Graves said.

Police, after contacting the girl at Oil Changers, were able to bring the girl back to her aunt and uncle.

"I'm really glad we saw her," Waller said. "She could have gone out into the field and who knows what would of happened."

Wentworth, Waller and Smith Jr. are Livermore residents.