Lyft driver says he isn't hero for rescuing little girl walking in the rain

(KTVU) Santa Rosa -   Lyft driver Del Hedrick had just dropped off a passenger in Santa Rosa. He was about to leave when he stopped his car in shock.

"Out of nowhere, a baby comes out walking right in front of my car," Hedrick said.

It was about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday during the storm.

"It was freezing cold. It was 40 degrees, pouring rain," Hedrick said.

The 18-month-old girl was soaking wet. Her teeth were chattering. She was wearing just a onesie and a diaper.

"She was crying her eyes out," Hedrick saidl. "I mean, she was crying hard. Hard hard hard, looking around. I mean, you could tell she was looking for an adult or parent."       

Hedrick took KTVU reporter Henry Lee to Crossroads apartment complex on Liana Drive where it happened.

"I picked her up in my arms just 10 feet away from where we're standing right here,' he said.

Hedrick decided to look for the girl's family.

"I had knocked on four consecutive doors there, and nobody recognized her," he said.

Neighbors did what they could to help.

"We gave them an umbrella and a blanket," said resident Araceli Encizo.

Hedrick called Santa Rosa police and waited. He took a video of the two of them in his car with the heat on. 

"Found this little baby, walking around, no shoes on, know nothing," Hedrick said in the video. "Cops are on their way."

"I would like to think that anybody in that situation would do exactly what I did, you know? To me, it's less heroic and more just what you should do," he said.

KTVU fund the little girl's mother at the complex. She had no idea that her daughter had gone missing until we told her.. She said her 17-year-old nephew was in charge as she went to work that night.

"She just had to pull the handle down and the door opens wide up. We're not allowed to add any additional anything," she said, referring to locking devices on the door. The woman said she left for work not long before the girl apparently went outside.

Child-safety experts call this the mommy or daddy bye-bye syndrome, where kids get to be a certain age and decide to follow their parents out the door, wondering where they went. 

Police say the girl had been outside for only a few minutes, and that no charges will be filed. 

"It sounds like it was a complete oversight or that the child somehow opened the door herself, because she was tall enough to do that," said Santa Rosa police Sgt. Jeneane Kucker.

The girl's mother says she's now trying to find a way secure the door. And she had this to say to the Lyft driver: "Thank you for bringing my daughter out of the rain."