Original subtitles

Next, on a special episode

of Paranormal Caught on Camera...

A horrific car crash sends a trucker into danger.

For some reason, I had no fear.

I know that God was with me.

Parents from Vietnam to Columbia

race to save their children.

He went after that ball and he fell in.

I had to go after him.

A man in Florida rescues his puppy from the jaws of a gator.

This man leaped into action,

literally pulling this dog from the jaws of death.

A massive brown bear stalks a boy in Italy.

The last thing you want to do is run away from the bear.

That is like death sentence.

And even more death-defying footage that will have you screaming.

Oh, my God.

There are approximately 1.35 million people

killed on roadways every year worldwide.

For truck drivers who spend most of their waking hours on highways,

accidents are an all-too-common sight.

And oftentimes, they are the first to respond.

That's if they are able and willing.

Such was the case in Mississippi

when a split decision made by a brave truck driver

was the difference between life and death.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

Hang on. Hang on. Hang on.

August 11, 2014, near Gulfport, Mississippi.

Truck driver David Frederickson and his driving partner

Walter Liederman are heading west on I-10

to drop off a shipment in California

when, out of nowhere...

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

My name is David, and this is my video.

As we were going down I-10, heading west, you know,

all of a sudden, there was a big explosion.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

Watch closely.

A driver fails to merge into 70-mile per hour traffic.

The car T-bones a gas tank of an 18-wheeler,

causing a huge fiery explosion.

Watching from their truck, David and Walter

are pretty sure of one thing.

At that point, you know, I thought they were probably dead.

I said, "I'm going to go out there."

And my co-driver was like, "Well, what can you do?

I'm like I got a fire extinguisher,

maybe I can put the fire out,

so that they have something to bury.

David jumps out of his truck and runs straight to the car.

I get out there and I started putting the fire out

and I see this little head pop up from the back seat, a little two-year-old girl.

And I'm like, "Oh, wow."

So I went around and I seen the lady

in the front seat kicking the door, trying to get out.

So in the video, you can see that I'm pulling the door.

And you could actually hear the metal bending because it was stuck.

David is able to pry it open just in the nick of time.

Other bystanders follow his lead and help David get a woman

and her two-year-old granddaughter out of the vehicle safely

before it once again erupts into flames.

Miraculously, the little girl seen here

in the arms of David's driving partner Walter

is fine and the driver here being helped

by two others suffers only a broken leg.

I don't know how they lived.

I really didn't think anybody would be alive after that.

But I believe that sometimes God puts you in places to do things

because if it was ten seconds earlier or ten seconds later,

I would have been further back in traffic

or I'd have been already through

or she would have ran into me.

This looks like you're on the set of an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie

to see this tractor trailer, this car just explode into flames in front of you.

This is something out of the movies.

Having seen the impact, the explosion,

the spin out, and the fire,

it is literally incomprehensible

that two people came out of that car mostly okay.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Hang on, hang on, hang on.

When a car is engulfed in flames,

that gas tank is a ticking timebomb, literally.

You have mere seconds to clear out of the area.

And this man spent those seconds risking his life

to save someone else's.

A fact that isn't lost on David.

Car could've blew up. I could have got hurt.

I got a family at home, too.

But for some reason, I had no fear.

I know that God was with me.

And I feel like He said, "Okay, Dave, this is what you're here for.

Go get these people out of the car.

I got other things for these people to do.

It's not their day."

You know, the type of person that's willing

to jump into danger like that is a person that is truly selfless,

someone who no longer cares about what happens to them,

as long as they're able to at least attempt to save another life.

It takes a certain character or a certain type of person

to be able to do that.

And what was amazing is, you see, when he jumps into action,

everyone else starts to follow.

I go back and I think about it.

What would I have done

if I wouldn't have got out of the truck

and I found out later that they actually burned alive,

you know, so that's why I think we do this stuff.

We would want somebody to do that for our family.

David is not only glad to have been able to save some lives,

he also hopes that by sharing his video,

there's a lesson to be learned.

I just hope if anything out of this that somebody else

has something like that happen and they help.

I've been out here a long time.

I've seen a lot of things I never want to see again.

I really wish people would really pay attention on these roads,

because people die every day and it's...

I mean, I got things that are in my mind

that I've seen that you never...

you never want to see, but would I get out and help them again?

Oh, yeah.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

Hang on, hang on.

Coming up...

Parents risk everything to save their kids.

When you become a parent,

the instinct to protect your child is a given.

So it's no surprise that ordinary moms and dads

have been known to exhibit superhero strength and ninja-like reflexes

to save their offspring when they are in danger.

It's a phenomenon known as hysterical strength

caused by a surge of adrenaline and stress hormones

not usually available to us in everyday life.

And you're about to see it in action.

February 2019, Goi, Nam Dinh, Vietnam.

Here, on these busy roadways,

it is not uncommon for cars and motorbikes

to jockey for position.

It's also not uncommon for entire families

to squeeze themselves onto a single motorbike.

Here's what happens when those two situations collide.

Watch again in slow motion.

As a motorist bumps into this motorbike, carrying two adults

and their toddler,

sending the mother and child into the path of a tractor trailer.

The mother somehow is able to spin around and pull herself

and her son clear of the truck's massive tires.

OMG is not enough.

Here, we need something you can't say on TV

to appropriately comment on what is happening here.

I gasped so loudly when I watched this video.

I rarely make an audible reaction,

but it was so horrifying.

I was completely off guard.

I was like, "There's no way.

There's no way that these people survived to this situation."

But they did.

I have four kids, I instantly start thinking about them

being in that situation and the horror,

the mom being so quick-witted to do what she did.

It just would have been a horrific scene

if it went the other way.

Four months later, in Medellin, Colombia,

an office building security camera captures a mother and child

exiting an elevator followed by a messenger.

The woman is on the phone and lets go of her child's hand for a moment.

Watch as the child wanders toward a railing

that overlooks the stairwell below.

Watch again.

As the child falls through, the mother immediately dives into action,

grasping the child's ankle with her free hand

and saving his life.

The messenger runs down the staircase to assist from below,

as people from nearby offices also come out to help bring the boy back to safety.

Miraculously, he is fine.

This video is a reminder of how quickly something can go wrong.

We see a split-second decision, lightning-fast reflexes,

and a mother's instincts go into hyperdrive.

It's almost like she's in superhuman-speed mode to not only get there,

but grab the ankle of that child just as it's falling.

A split-second difference would have meant

that child falling down and landing on its head.

One of the first things I noticed was that

she never dropped her phone.

And at first, my instinct was to maybe be a tiny bit cynical.

But the more I watched it, the more I thought

I don't think that's what's happening,

I think that there is literally

no other space in her brain

for any movement other than grabbing her child.

June 2019, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

Albert Passavanti and his family are enjoying their pool

for the first time this season.

My name is Albert, and I saved my child from drowning.

It was starting to get warmer out, our kids were getting,

you know, excited to get out into the pool.

So we opened up the pool and my wife goes into the Jacuzzi.

My older daughter, she could swim, no problem.

And she was just playing around in the pool

and my wife was in the Jacuzzi side with Rocco.

Rocco is their two-year-old son

and he does not know how to swim.

Rocco wound up leaving the Jacuzzi and started coming out

towards the other common area,

which is outside of the baby gate.

He got sidetracked and he saw that ball.

That's when you hear me out, "Watch, watch, watch."

He went after that ball and he fell in.

I had to go after him.

Watch again as Albert leaps clear over the fence

surrounding the pool and into the water to save Rocco.

He went from normal father to gold medal winning Phelps

and jumped over that and got into the pool as quickly as possible

to snatch up his kid, and it was incredible.

It takes just seconds for a child to drown.

And so if he had not dived in that pool at that moment,

you know, I'd hate to think what would've happened.

It's very likely that that little kid would not have survived.

Thanks to his quick thinking and high jumping dad,

Rocco does survive and learns an important lesson.

He swims like a fish now.

Words can't express how thankful I am

that it worked out the way that it did.

When we all hear these crazy stories, where, you know,

parents do these supernatural things in order to save their children.

Honestly, I think any, any capable adult

would have been able to do the same thing.

As lucky as these kids are to have survived...

...they are going to suffer from a lifetime of guilt trips.

And they can't say a darn thing about it.

Coming up, a young boy in Italy

is pursued by an enormous brown bear.

If you ever encounter a brown bear in the wild,

there are a few rules you must obey

if you want a chance at surviving.

Stay calm, make no sudden moves,

and perhaps, most important,

though every survival instinct in your body

is telling you to, do not run.

To do so would mean almost certain death.

This was the nearly impossible challenge facing a young boy

and his family, when he found himself just steps away

from a massive brown bear.

May 24, 2020, Trentino, Italy.

12-year-old Alessandro Breda and his family are out for a hike.

Alessandro gets a bit separated from the group as he's collecting pinecones.

And as he's coming down the mountain to rejoin them,

watch closely.

Do you see it?

There, in the bushes, just feet behind him is a massive brown bear.

Alessandro is aware and moves very slowly

as his mother's boyfriend, Loris Calliari, calmly guides him.

My name is Loris.

My name is Alessandro.

Loris knows that at any moment the bear could lunge

at Alessandro and tear him to pieces.

My jaw is on the floor because I think instantly

of my own children being in this scenario and knowing that this huge,

enormous bear is slowly stalking your kid.

The last thing you want to do is run away from the bear.

Like, that is like death sentence.

And you're watching your kid being tracked

by this massive, powerful animal.

You know, as a mom, I get it.

Like, you kind of would want to yell and get your kid

as quickly out of that situation as possible.

You see how vulnerable that child is here.

The bear is the one thing that's completely unpredictable.

And at any second, that bear could just decide to lunge.

The rest of the family suddenly realizes what is happening

and starts to panic.

But incredibly, Alessandro stays calm...

...until finally the bear seems to lose interest

and runs down the hillside.

Most of us have been desensitized

to what wild land creatures truly act like.

The one thing you always have to remember is that

their main job in life is to survive.

And if that means eating you, they're going to survive.

So always keep some kind of respect

for the wild land animals.

I promise you, they're not as friendly as you want them to be.

And you never want to find out how unfriendly they can be.

For his part, Loris believes they did all the right things,

but also might have had some help on that day.

And though he is grateful to have made it out alive,

Alessandro has a slightly different take on the encounter than Loris.

Coming up...

Stop, stop, stop.

...the OMG miracles continue.

What is more precious than a puppy or kitten?

Not much.

So when their lives are in danger,

most people will do just about anything to save them.

Stop, stop, stop.

Even if that means risking their own lives in the process.

October 19, 2015, Woodward, Oklahoma.

It's Monday morning and Laney Keppler

is riding her motorcycle to work.

My name is Laney, and this is my video.

It was just a completely normal day for me.

I was driving to work like any Monday morning.

But this morning is different.

Laney spots something while waiting at a stoplight.

I initially thought it was just a leaf,

but when he traveled in one direction

and then immediately went in the other direction away from traffic,

it was like, oh, my God, that's a cat.

A kitten, in fact.

And its life is in clear and present danger.

I felt absolutely heart in my throat, no thoughts,

had to get cat out of the road.

Laney makes a bold decision...

Stop, stop, stop!

...and drives her bike into oncoming traffic.

I was initially scared that someone wasn't gonna see me.

Stop, stop, stop.

And the car would come through and hit either of us,

but at the time that just, it wasn't on my mind at all.

Thank God there's a bystander on the side of the road.

Oh, my God.

I got to get my bike out of the road. Stay there.

I was able to pass him off to her and then safely

get my bike out of the road and traffic resumed.

Oh, my God. I was holding my hand up.

Stop, stop, stop.

As the cyclist is trying to stop the traffic,

as this kitten's in the road.

I'm watching it from the safety of my own home with my hand up

in front of me going, "Stop, there's a kitten in the road."

I mean, the tension of that was just beyond.

The fact that she was willing to drive her motorcycle into traffic,

essentially to save this kitten,

you've got to love people like that.

The world needs more of those.

Oh, my God.

I know. I was like, "Oh, my God. No, no, no."

I am shaken. Oh, you poor thing.

Here, you can just put her in my helmet for now.

I knew immediately once I put him in my helmet

that this cat is mine.

He's coming home with me

and he's absolutely going to be my buddy.

You're okay now sweetie, yes. - She's a real beauty.

Yes.

Laney keeps the kitten and names him Skid Mark.

This is Skid Mark.

He almost became a skid mark.

And then I love the nickname of Skids.

There's a good chance that that kitten used up

all of its nine lives that day.

To save a life and help something out is

one of the most rewarding feelings in the world

that I get to wake up every day

and see him and enjoy him and love on him

because of this happened.

It's just... it's a fantastic feeling.

Oh, you poor thing.

Another gut-wrenching rescue

takes place on October 25, 2020, in Estero, Florida.

When Richard Wilbanks takes his 7-week-old puppy, Gunner,

for a walk around a pond and the unthinkable happens.

My name is Richard, and this is my dog, Gunner.

I was walking Gunner out by the pond,

and all of a sudden, Gunner slipped out of his harness.

The next thing I knew, I heard him cower

and turned around and all I saw was

the alligator's tail swimming away.

And I knew that the alligator had him.

So I just jumped in the water and went to get him.

Gunner is in the alligator's jaws, beneath the water.

I was about chest deep in water

when I finally caught the alligator.

I wrestled him up to the bank and just pinned him down

and pried his mouth open.

When I finally got Gunner out of his mouth,

then my hand was stuck in his mouth.

So I had to work them out.

Richard finally does get his hands out.

This man leaped into action and wrestled an alligator,

literally pulling this dog from the jaws of death.

If this is not an OMG, I don't know what is.

The gator had bitten right through Gunner's rib cage,

but he miraculously survives the attack.

He had to spend a couple of days in the hospital

with some IV antibiotics.

So, he did get a little water in his lungs.

And I went and got a tetanus shot from where the alligator bit me,

and they told me to go get some stitches and I came home,

put some superglue on them and pushed back them together.

To give you like a visual image of what it's like to be trapped

in the jaws of an alligator, it would be like

trying to lift a semi-truck off your chest.

That puppy did not stand a chance had it not been

for the really loving and heroic acts of its owner.

I wouldn't call myself a hero.

I just reacted. I'm a religious person.

And I think the good Lord has kind of always been my God,

and I turned to Him when I needed help

and I think He's helped me when I needed Him.

Coming up...

Two kayakers in Canada...

Can you keep your eyes open for me?

...hang on for dear life.

Okay. Hold onto my boat.

.

Capsizing in cold waters is terrifying

and potentially deadly.

Hypothermia can take hold within 30 minutes,

making your chances of survival slim to none.

Which is why a quick water rescue

is so crucial for everyone involved.

Just ask a woman from Canada...

How long have you been out here for?

...whose heroic efforts...

We need to get you to shore.

...turned into a nightmare of titanic proportions.

April 30, 2021, Kelowna, British Columbia.

Sally Wallick cuts her kayak through the waters of Okanagan Lake.

My name is Sally, and this is my video.

It was a beautiful, sunny, flat day, picture perfect day

to go for a really nice just sunshiny paddle.

But as Sally kayaks farther out from shore,

that picture perfect day quickly changes.

In a matter of a few minutes,

wind picked up like crazy,

and it just kept getting bigger and bigger, the waves.

Ah, cold.

And it's making Sally a little nervous.

It's getting really windy, should turn around.

Then Sally spots something up ahead, bobbing in the waves.

I just saw like a tiny little head and the tip of a kayak

and I was like, "Oh, my gosh."

Kind of made me feel like sick

because I kept thinking like I was about to turn around so many times.

Hi.

Need some help? You in trouble?

How are you doing?

It's another kayaker

who's capsized in the very cold

50-degree lake, and he is not okay.

How long have you been out here for?

Quite a while.

Quite a while. Okay.

His lips were blue.

I could definitely tell just by the way he was talking

that he was super out of it.

I don't know too much about hypothermia,

but I do know that

that was the most likely what was happening here.

The fact that this man's lips were purple

and that he was no longer panicking or even moving

that much elevates this entire situation.

Right now, we need to get you to shore.

Sally knows she has to act fast and goes with her gut.

Okay, actually, if you can grab onto the back of my boat.

If you're doing a rescue, I've always been taught

that you want the person being rescued to be on the back of your boat

and then sort of hug back.

But Sally's kayak is not well suited for a rough water rescue

and the man's weight on the back of the boat is causing it to tip.

So Sally tries a new tack.

Actually, grab onto the front,

the tip of it, so I can just see you.

Good job.

Keep going. Remember to breathe.

But the front isn't working either.

And this already difficult rescue

now takes a serious turn for the worse.

Can you keep your eyes open for me?

Hold on to the boat. You're doing great.

His head started kind of like bobbing backwards.

And he was making kind of like panicky sort of quick breaths.

And then, yeah, his eyes started closing.

Hey, we're gonna try something else, come here.

Knowing the man doesn't have much time left

and with no help in sight, Sally does the unthinkable.

Hold onto my boat.

We're gonna try something new.

It's okay. Hold onto it.

I flipped the boat over and started kicking him to shore.

And that probably wasn't the best move on my part,

but I had no idea what else to do at that point.

We do water rescues in Florida and most of the time,

it's making sure that we follow specific steps

to getting the victim out of the water.

And the last one is always going out there to get them.

Hold onto my boat. We're gonna try something new.

For her to put herself at risk in the first place,

but to even further put herself at risk to get in the water

and make sure that he stays above is absolutely incredible.

It's okay.

Now, Sally is also dealing with the debilitating effects

of the cold water and must work to save them both.

Kind of just sort of went into mission mode.

I think people have this ability to kind of

almost turn off their emotions sometimes,

when they're in that situation.

But even in mission mode,

Sally is aware that the chances of them

both surviving this are slim.

I was like really worried

because we're still really far from shore.

So I was looking around.

There is no boats in sight that I could see.

The waves were pretty big too.

So if there was someone out there, it was hard to see.

Then...

Sally spots a boat.

The boat approaches, but things still

aren't looking good for the rescue.

We need help.

They pulled him into the boat.

And at this point, like from my perspective,

it seemed like he was pretty much,

like, almost just like not even there.

The man is immediately taken to a hospital.

Miraculously, he survives the ordeal.

Sally is able to make it safely back to shore on her own.

Grateful to have been there to save a life

and especially to have survived herself.

I feel like the world's always got my back

and has always given me surprises,

and I think, in a way,

things always happen for a reason.

I felt like I have the skills and strength

to be able to keep myself safe first.

And I think that really helped with being able to stay calm for him.

Coming up...

A terrifying fall onto the tracks as a train approaches.

For most of us, having a bad day at work

means something along the lines of jammed copiers,

rude customers, or brutal deadlines.

But imagine for a moment that a rough day at work

means you almost lost your life and the lives of people around you.

That's what happened to two dedicated transit employees

and their split-second decisions changed their worlds forever.

March 2013, Zhejiang Province, China.

A bus driver is making a routine run

with a bus full of passengers, when...

Watch again in slow motion,

as an out-of-control car leaps the median,

launching a lamppost into the bus.

Incredibly, the driver is able to move out of the way

in the nick of time, while horrified passengers take cover.

OMG, I mean, what other three letters

describes this clip other than OMG,

where that man's head used to be is a pole.

My jaw dropped when this pole

literally impales the entire bus.

Incredibly, none of the passengers on board

are seriously injured.

It's sort of indescribable watching this happen.

You think nobody could have survived that.

But everybody was fine.

It's a miracle.

It's a miracle nobody was hurt.

Even more amazing, the driver who does suffer a ruptured spleen

somehow stops the still moving bus

and runs to help the driver of the car that crashed.

You'd think it'd be enough to stop at your own astonishing survival.

You'd think maybe to stop the bus and save everyone else on it,

you know, two levels of heroism there, that would be enough.

Nope. Let's add in a third.

Let's get out of the bus and help the other people

who caused the bus accident in the first place.

He is completely lucky that he's just able to walk away

from something so devastating with just a spleen injury.

He's... he's lucky to be alive and there's definitely a reason why he's still here.

He has more to do on this planet.

And apparently, he's not the only one.

April 2021, Maharashtra, India.

It's a quiet Saturday in the Vangani train station,

but for railway switchman, Mayur Shelke, who was on the tracks

giving hand signals to arriving trains, that's about to change.

My name is Mayur Sakharam Shelke.

Watch closely, as indeed, the mother and son

veer off toward the edge of the platform.

And then.

Watch again

as the 6-year-old boy falls off the platform to the tracks below,

just as a train enters the station.

The boy's mother frantically calls for him to climb back up.

Now, watch the bottom right corner of the screen.

That's Mayur, running toward the oncoming train.

Watch again.

As Mayur is somehow incredibly able to throw the boy

back up to the platform and keep himself up just as the train speeds by.

As risky as it was, Mayur felt he had no choice.

It takes a certain kind of person to risk your own life

to save a stranger, and that's exactly what this guy did.

You know, that speaks volumes as to what kind of person this guy probably is.

It turns out the boy's mother is blind and may have been

unable to gauge the distance to the edge of the platform as they walked down it.

For his incredible efforts, Mayur receives a reward from the minister of railways

and becomes something of a local celebrity.

And true to his character, gives half of the reward money to the young boy.

In a lot of these videos, it's all about being brave,

it's all about doing the right thing.

It's all about trying to help each other when you need help.