A retired Indiana police officer was recently reunited with an abandoned baby boy he had saved in 2000. Over two decades later, that boy is now a rookie with his rescuer's police department.
Working as a lieutenant with the South Bend Police Department, Gene Eyster will always remember responding to a call on Dec. 22, 2000, about a newborn who had been left in a common hallway of an apartment complex, CBS News reports. Eyster took "Baby Boy Doe," who was wrapped in blankets and cardboard, to the hospital, and he left a teddy bear at the spot of the discovery as a sign that the baby was safe.
"That was one of the strangest calls I think I've ever had: 'We have a found baby in a box,'" Eyster told CBS. "You always wonder, what happened?"
Because the baby's records were sealed following the rescue, Eyster never expected he would have that question answered. But in March, the now-retired 47-year veteran of the force received an unexpected phone call from a former colleague.
The officer asked Eyster if he remembered the abandoned baby in the box. When Eyster said he did, the officer dropped a bombshell revelation: He was sitting next to that boy, who had grown up to become a rookie with the South Bend Police Department.
Matthew Hegedus-Stewart had been adopted after Eyster found him in the cardboard box and rescued him. Although he had known he was abandoned in a box before his adoption, Hegedus-Stewart didn't know all the details of what happened. It wasn't until he was wearing the same uniform as Eyster once had that he finally found out the identity of his savior.
"Full circle moment. That hit home. I can only imagine from his point of view," said the rookie, who also patrols the same neighborhood that Eyster once had.
For Eyster, the synchronicity of their reunion has been incredibly significant. Recently, he lost his 36-year-old son, who died unexpectedly.
"So the timing couldn't have been any better, it helped to fill a void that I've had to deal with," he said.
