A 12 year-old boy is being hailed as a hero this week after he saved a toddler who was trapped in a hot car unattended.

Ben Theriot was out shopping for shoes with his mother Nikki Fields when they heard a two year-old screaming from the backseat of a vehicle.

“My mom heard a baby crying,” Ben said.

It was an incredibly hot day, with police saying that temperatures reached 116 degrees Fahrenheit outside. Inside the car it had to be unbearably stifling, which is why Ben and Nikki decided the boy needed to be rescued.

“I just got on the phone, I yelled for him to find anything in my car,” Nikki continued. “It was so hot. I was on the phone with the ambulance, with 911 and I was like ‘We’ve got to get this baby out.'”

Following his mother’s instructions, Ben ran into her car and found a ratchet strap.

“I started hitting the side window, didn’t bust, bent it pretty badly,” he remembered. When Ben went to the front window and started to attack it, an employee from a nearby store ran out with a part of a clothing rack.

“I started hitting it a lot more, then it busted open and we got some help from other people,” Ben said.

“I was scared because I don’t want to be in trouble, but I can’t leave this baby in the car either. He just jumped right into action and didn’t even hesitate,” added his mother.

Ben went on to say that he swung the piece of clothing rack “over my shoulder, hit it right in the center. And then I hit it a couple more times and then I climbed on the windshield. I stomped on it and then it cracked pretty badly again. Then, the lady went and grabbed that hanger thing and then I put the hook into the windshield and pulled it out. And then I unlocked it.”

First responders soon arrived on the scene and got the unidentified baby out of the car. Police wrote the child’s mother a ticket, but did not make any arrests since the baby was not hurt. The mother claimed it was an accident and that she thought another adult was in the car with the child, but police were confused as to why the doors were locked and off. They will be following up with DHS to keep tabs on the child’s welfare.

“Within minutes, that child could have passed out and became ill from a heat injury. Time was of the essence in that situation,” said Officer Jeanne Pierce. “We’d rather have a broken windshield than a child death. Any individual wouldn’t be in trouble with us in that situation because they saved the life of that child.”

Nikki said she could not be more proud of her son.

“I’m just very proud of him,” she said. “I’m glad he knew what to do.”

Find out more about this in the video below.