MTA bus driver who helped little girl on UWS sidewalk moonlights as New York Liberty dancer, performs at finals game
The MTA bus driver who heroically helped a little girl wandering alone on the Upper West Side last month hit the hardwood Sunday as a member of the Timeless Torches — an over-40 dance troupe that performs at New York Liberty games.
Luis Jimenez, 60, was decked out in a black Torches jersey and black track pants as he sat in the stands at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn ahead of the second game of the WNBA Finals, where the Torches performed.
The driver, who has been moonlighting with the troupe for years, told The Post in 2013 that his night-side gig keeps him limber for his day job — and equated dancing to the “fountain of youth.”
“It keeps your energy, everything you have to bring,” Jimenez said at the time. “Helping people out driving the bus is the best thing in the world. I help the elderly with where they gotta go, give special need to them.”
No dance move is too tough for the stocky driver, who can break it down to disco, hip-hop and rock-and-roll — depending what the moment calls for.
“We bring it to the floor!” he said. “You name it, they teach us, we learn it.”
The boogying wheelman was recently hailed as a hero following an ABC 7 New York report that he pulled his city bus over one Tuesday in September after he saw a 5-year-old girl wandering the streets of Manhattan all alone.
He immediately knew something wasn’t right, he told the station. Especially when the little girl darted from the sidewalk into the street near West 106th and Broadway.
“My instinct as a father came on because if I see a kid in the street in need of help, I would want somebody to help one of my children or one of my grandkids,” Jimenez told the outlet.
“You know, my wife always, you know, kind of like she’s worried about me because she knows that when I see something, it’s like we have a saying in the MTA, ‘if you see something, say something,’” he continued. “Well, with me, I will do something.”
Jimenez watched the girl for about a block before telling one of the riders to call the cops.
Then he pulled over and got the girl onboard with the help of passengers while they waited for the police.
Surveillance footage showed the little girl walking alone on the sidewalk before she is helped onto the bus by an adult.
Authorities said the girl slipped out of her school 10 blocks away because her pet fish had just died and she wanted to go to a pet store to get a new one.
The school had also reported her missing.
Cops quickly got the girl back with her family — as Jimenez added that he hoped she’d found a new fish.
“If she didn’t get it we should help out and try to get it for her,” he said.
World News || Latest News || U.S. News
Source link