Ohio Man Pulls Mother and 8-Year-Old Daughter From Sinking SUV in His Parents' Backyard Pond
Yianni Sarris was in his parents' backyard in Mentor, Ohio on a Friday night, helping his dad cut down some dead trees. His mom had left to pick up pizza. His dad had gone to the garage to grab a battery for the saw. For a few minutes, Yianni was alone — one last swing at a tree before the Cavaliers game started.
Then he heard a boom.
What He Saw
"I heard a big boom, which I thought at the time was possibly a garbage truck," Sarris said. "I looked up — and the SUV was coming up, came down, came across one, two, three, four yards. Then the right two wheels went down the hill over there and just kept driving, basically, into the center of the pond."
Just before that moment, Kim Wallace, 46, had been heading home from Olive Garden with her 8-year-old daughter, Olivia. It was just the two of them — her husband Chris was out of town, and her older daughter Gabby, 10, was at a sleepover. A quiet Friday night that was about to change everything.
Something went wrong on the drive home. Kim began feeling nauseated and disoriented. "We were coming home and I started to feel really, like, nauseous — kind of, like, sick, like starting to feel just not right," she said on Mentor police body camera footage. "And yeah, next thing I know, her son was literally waking me up from the car."
She had passed out. The SUV had crossed four yards of property and driven straight into the pond behind the Sarris family's backyard.
What Yianni Did
Sarris didn't hesitate. He ran to the pond and pulled both Kim and Olivia from the sinking vehicle. By the time he got them out he was completely spent — Mentor police body camera footage captured him collapsed on the ground, gasping, when officers arrived.
He didn't film it. He didn't post it. He just did it.
"People are very quick to bust out their phone, film, and he didn't even do that," Kim said later. "I am just grateful, grateful, grateful."
When asked afterward why he acted so quickly, Sarris kept it simple.
"I've luckily been raised by a great mother and father," he said. "I've had incredible mentors that just always taught me to do the right thing, and that was the right thing."
Two Families, Now Connected
Weeks after the rescue, the two families met at a nearby park — including Yianni's parents, who had been present the night it happened. For Kim, finding the right words was almost impossible.
"We just can't thank you enough," she told Yianni. "I am so grateful that you were there. I don't think I got a chance to really express that to you. We were all in shock."
Her husband Chris, who had been out of town the night his wife and daughter went into a pond, stood in front of the man who saved them and said the only thing that really needed to be said.
"Our family is still here today because of you," he told Yianni. "Because I don't know what it would have been."
Olivia — the 8-year-old who was in the passenger seat when everything went sideways — was already awake and alert when Sarris pulled her from the car. Her mom needed a few more seconds. But both of them made it out. Both of them went home.
It was supposed to be an ordinary Friday night in Mentor, Ohio. One family was getting pizza. Another was cutting down dead trees. A car went into a pond. And a 33-year-old man was right there when it mattered most.
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