Michael Gloege, Hank Andrade and his sister, June Andrade, turned into heroes last Saturday after hearing a man yelling for help. Courtesy photo

DIXON, CA (MPG) - Best friends Hank Andrade and Michael Gloege, both 11, along with Hank’s sister, June, who is 8, wouldn’t consider themselves heroes but long-time local resident Howard Straub, 80, would.

The children decided to hang out Saturday morning on the playground of their school, Dixon Montessori Charter School, when they heard a man yelling for help coming from a house backing up to the school fence on Woodvale.

They were perched on top of a playground structure where they could hear him yell, “Call 911, I fell and I can’t move.”

The children weren’t sure what to do so Hank called his mother and told her that someone needed help.

 

Best Buddies Hank Andrade, left, and Michael Gloege helped rescue a Dixon senior citizen trapped in his home this past weekend. Courtesy photo

“It was about 10:24 a.m. when he reached out to me,” said his mother, Amy Andrade. “I asked some questions like what the man’s address was and during the call, we could hear the boys holler to the man.”

Ten minutes later, Amy Andrade and her husband, Chris, were there.

“When we first pulled up, the neighbor was out in the next-door garage and even told us who lived there,” Amy Andrade said. “The boys showed Chris the house, so we turned off the car and two seconds later, we heard him. We could hear him yell. We realized he truly needs 911.”

The Dixon Fire Department was there “within minutes” and assessed the situation, according to Amy Andrade. The front door was locked and had to be kicked in. An ambulance arrived. 

“Police officers told us when they were getting our statements that he’d been laying on the floor almost 24 hours. Funny, there was a garage sale about five houses down and the neighbors were out but no one had heard him,” Amy Andrade said. “Who knows what would have happened if the kids hadn’t been there.” 

The ambulance took the man to the hospital.

“I was truly amazed by these kids,” she said. “They were calm. They didn’t know what to do but they had the common sense to go and get somebody to help. I feel good. You know that you structured your kids in a way that they had the common sense to get help. It genuinely feels amazing.”