Off-duty Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood scales fence to rescue toddler trapped in Ocoee pool area

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. - A mother's worst nightmare was captured on frantic 911 calls after her two-year-old daughter wandered into an Ocoee community pool area.

The child was saved by Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwookd, who was off duty and riding his bike in the area, he told FOX 35. 

What we know:

A gate to a community pool shut and locked behind the toddler – leaving her mother completely helpless on the other side of the fence, authorities said. 

911 dispatch audio obtained by FOX 35 details the mother's frantic plea. 

"She was just like standing there. And so the gate was unlocked, so she walked in the pool area. Serafina, come to mommy. Come to mommy, please. Don't go to the pool!" the mother pleaded to dispatchers and her little girl.

Panic laced the mother's voice as she begged her daughter to stay away from the water.

"Serafina, come to mommy… please listen to mommy," she cried.

Sheriff rescues trapped child

Fortunately, her cries for help echoed just far enough to reach exactly the right person. 

"I'm riding and I am coming back from a 40-miler, and I hear these horrific screams," Sheriff Chitwood recalled.

He immediately pedaled over, bracing himself for a tragic scene.

"All I can think of is I'm riding into, there's a kid that drowned," Chitwood said. "So when I pull up to the pool, that's what I'm expecting to see: a baby face down in the water, and nobody could get to the baby."

Without his badge or usual law enforcement gear, the sheriff had to think fast to get over a tall fence topped with metal shards.

"There's only one way my butt's getting over that fence, and that was to use my bike as a ladder because the fence is really high," Chitwood explained. "And in one portion of the fence, there's metal shards to prevent people from going in there. And then once I was able to get over the fence, then I kept thinking to myself, please don't run, right? You got a guy in a bicycle helmet, gloves, big nose, and mustache. You're gonna scare this kid, and that kid's gonna dive into the pool and make it even worse."

Retuned to her mother's arms

Thanks to the sheriff's quick thinking and careful approach, the little girl was safely returned to her mother’s arms unharmed.

"Thank God that everything worked out," Chitwood said. "But to listen to that 911 call... those eight minutes, I mean, even I teared up listening to it because you could just, those screams, the shrill at the top of her lungs screaming. And, you know, I was just in the right place at the right time."