P.E. teacher discovers abandoned infants behind Madison Heights school
Man walks through discovery of infants in Madison Heights
John Belyea works as a physical education teacher and driving instructor for Madison Heights school, so needless to say he's spent much of his life as a model for other students. One of his biggest tests came this week when he found two infants abandoned behind a building.
MADISON HEIGHTS, Mich. (FOX 2) - John Belyea doesn't consider himself a hero, but it was his actions last week that led to the rescue of two abandoned infants who were found behind a building in Madison Heights.
He would consider being called lucky, however.
"I maybe consider myself very lucky that I was working that day," he said.
Belyea is a physical education teacher at Lamphere High School in Madison Heights. He's worked there for 35 years. While working as a driving instructor over the weekend, he got the opportunity to show what it means to be a teacher and model for other students.
On Saturday afternoon, he heard a noise that sounded like cats fighting.
It was near a school door on a break with his driving class when he took a look.
"I go all the way down over here. I could hear it even more, and I looked down over here in the corner as soon as I turned I’m like, they’re they are," he said.
They were a 2-year-old and a 4-week old, siblings that were left alone in the rain in their car seats.
"Luckily, the older one was crying if I didn’t hear that crying, I never would’ve never come over here," he said. "I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I looked around and realized they were left here, so I immediately called the Madison Heights Police station and they were here within minutes."
He also did a little investigating himself, checking the nearby dumpster to see if anybody had passed out.
First responders took the little kids to the hospital where police say they are in stable condition. A source also told FOX 2 the kid's mom was arrested and charged with child abandonment and child abuse.
Belyea has since reflected on the discovery, processing emotions from a scene that still startles him.
"It’s still a sad situation. It will take a while - I don’t know if I will ever go away. It will always be there," he said.