Tow Truck Driver Rescues Kitten From Bay Area Roadway

(CBS) - On Saturday, a CHP officer got a lot of press when he saved a tiny kitten stranded on the center divider of the Golden Gate Bridge. But you don't need a badge to be a hero.

After nearly getting run over on the Nimitz Freeway, a little kitten is safe and it's all thanks to a tow truck driver with a history of being a hero.

"I wake up in the morning and think what's gonna happen today?" said Darryl Poe, a driver for the Bay Area Freeway Service Patrol.

Eight hours a day, Poe cruises 880 from Oakland to Hayward helping motorists get back on the road. But during this morning's commute, he spotted something unusual.

"People swerving around it. It looked like he was out for a Sunday stroll," he said.

It was a small, black kitten wandering in and out of the slow-moving traffic.

It walked beneath a stopped semi-truck and Darryl was able to reach under and grab it and hand it off to a CHP officer to take to a shelter, which is pretty heroic by Bay Area standards.

"It's just hilarious how saving a cat turns into, like, as if I saved a life," said Poe.

Actually, that really happened last fall when he helped save a woman from a burning vehicle and was given an award for it. This afternoon, he helped a downed motorcyclist get to the side of the freeway and called paramedics to check him out.

It's just another day on the Freeway Service Patrol. And while Darryl admits it can be dangerous, he honestly seems a little embarrassed about the whole kitten thing.

He admits he's maybe just a little bit of a hero.