Police officer, truck driver rescue kitten from middle of Florida highway

ALACHUA, Fla. — A Florida police officer, with an assist from a truck driver, rescued a tiny kitten that was lying in the middle of a busy highway.

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According to a Facebook post by the Alachua Police Department, Officer Thomas Stanfield observed the tiny feline on U.S. 441 while on patrol on May 12 in Alachua, located 78 miles southwest of downtown Jacksonville and 16 miles northwest of Gainesville.

Vehicles were whizzing past the kitten when Stanfield stopped to remove it from the road, the police department wrote.

A truck driver for Mi Apa Latin Cafe in Gainesville used their truck to block one lane of oncoming traffic while Stanfield scooped up the kitten. Body camera video showed a car zooming past the officer and just feet away from the kitten.

Miraculously, the kitten did not jump or run in either direction, and Stanfield was able to bring it to his patrol car.

“I just found a baby kitten in the middle of 441,” the officer said to his dispatcher. In the video, Stanfield can be seen holding the kitten in his hand on his laptop while he drives away from the scene.

The Mi Apa Latin Cafe answered the police department’s Facebook post, writing that “We have the best officers in Alachua and our drivers always know what the priority is.”

According to a Facebook post by the Alachua Police Department on Feb. 9, Stanfield, who has been with the department since November 2015, was named the 2023 Officer of the Year at the Alachua Chamber of Commerce Banquet. He is currently the agency’s public information officer and is currently assigned to the Patrol Division and Community Relations departments.

As for the kitten, it is no longer on the road and has settled down.

“We’re thrilled to share that this little furball has found a loving forever home with one of our amazing dispatchers,” the Alachua Police Department wrote in its Facebook post on May 22.

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