Alaska Teen Working at Home Depot Saves Baby's Life; Receives 'Angel Award' From Retailer for His Heroic Act
Christopher Strickland, a 19-year-old Home Depot employee living in Anchorage, Alaska, has unexpectedly garnered national and international attention after catching a falling baby at the retail store last Thursday. A nine second video taken from security footage that documents the teen's heroic act has gone viral on multiple online platforms, including YouTube, where it's received more than 230,000 views as of Friday afternoon.
"I don't care either way," Strickland said about being considered a hero, The Anchorage Daily News reported. Store manager Brady Wilson said "it was his character," and human resources manager-turned-media-handler Cheryl Edmond emphasized that "he literally saved her life."
The video shows Strickland waiting around to assist customers when suddenly a baby lose in her car seat flipped over and off of an orange shopping cart. As the baby began to fall, Strickland lunged to catch her. He then returned the baby to her father's embrace.
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"I thought I'd keep an eye on it, in case something happened," Strickland said about the cart. After the incident, Strickland received an Angel Award from Home Depot for outstanding acts of safety, according to Mashable.
A few days later, someone uploaded the video to the Internet and it also landed on the Facebook page of Strickland's church, Jewel Lake Community Church. And on Sunday, his brother, Dale, uploaded the video to YouTube, giving it a short description: "My brother saving a baby falling off a cart at Home Depot."
"Chris to the rescue" has since garnered more than 230,000 views on YouTube. The video found even more traction on LiveLeak, where it has picked up more than 384,400 views.
Follwoing his brother's video post on YouTube last week, commenters on YouTube have been lauding Strickland's quick action that saved the baby's life.
"Give that man a cookie!!! And an Internet medal for chivalry," YouTube user warpedsoul commented.
And Sandra Alvarado commented, "God bless you more Chris!"
Commenter Amie Hankins actually suggested Strickland should monetize the video. "Chris deserves some money from this…sell it to everyone," she wrote. "It's gonna blow up!"
Strickland, however, said he doesn't care about the Internet popularity. But he did admit that one "kind of cool" thing is that it gave him joy, and his parents are proud.
