By: Matthew Bailey

Longview, Texas - Child endangerment charges have been filed on a Big Sandy, Texas after her crying 20 month old infant was found trying to make its way across a busy Longview, Texas street Wednesday, area police said.

The child is in custody of Child Protective Services a report said.

About 5 p.m. on Wednesday, motorists saw the infant in the street along with a dog and blocked traffic. One motorist grabbed the infant, who was hysterical and the child had only been wearing a diaper.

Using the information that the dog tag contained, authorities went to the home of the dog’s owner and learned that the infant’s mother, 22 year old Brittany Thornbrugh of Big Sandy had been there earlier that day.

The dog’s owner told police he was not aware that Thornbrugh, who had visited with him and his girlfriend, had left the child alone outside.

When Thornbrugh, after being contacted by authorities, arrived at Good Shepherd Medical Center to check on the child, she had been taken into custody. She was booked into Gregg County Jail on the state felony charge of abandoning/endangering a child.

The motorists for acting as Good Samaritans. “They are all heroes. They stopped traffic and then rescued that child. It was a miracle the child did not get run over,” an official said. Although the child only went a few hundred feet from the yard to the traffic, the official said that the distance had been “horribly far for that small of a child.” Then the official said, “It was also helpful that the apparently protective dog stayed with the upset child.”

An officer who arrived shortly after the child was pulled from the street tracked down the owner through a Longview, Texas veterinarian’s information on the dog tag.