A former Marine jumped into a pond Thursday in Northwest Indiana to save two women stuck in a car, he told ABC7 Chicago.
Carlos Fernandez said he “instantly jumped in the water” after realizing the occupants of a black car had driven off the road and into a pond, he told ABC7 Chicago.
Fernandez had been driving down highway I-80 and Kennedy Avenue when he spotted the vehicle in the water at around 6 p.m., according to the outlet.
“My original plan was, I was going to grab my chain from the back of my truck, and I was going to pull the car out,” he told ABC7. But after someone yelled out, “There’s two people in the car,” the former marine immediately jumped into the pond to rescue the two women, the outlet reported.
Cellphone footage recorded at the scene and shared by ABC7 shows Fernandez standing in the pond, reaching to help the woman in the driver’s seat.
“One of the ladies had her foot stuck in the mud, and she couldn’t walk, so I’m like, ‘Alright, I’m carrying them out,'” he continued.
“I just felt like it was the right thing to do,” Fernandez continued. “I think it was the Marine in me just, hey, you always have to do the right thing.”
“Something we preach in the Marine Corps is integrity, doing the right thing when nobody is looking,” he added, according to ABC7. (RELATED: Off-Duty Firefighter In Crocs Saves 3-Year-Old Using A Garden Hose)
Fernandez encouraged city officials to install signage near the scene of the incident, alleging the area is treacherous in the dark. “I would like, if they can even put one of those signs right here that states, ‘Hey, you’ve got to turn this way,’ because, at night, you can’t see this [pond]. Nobody knows this is here,” he told the outlet, speaking at the scene of the rescue.