Miracle save of baby highlights the year

1952

Tot in danger

A baby in a stroller rolled downhill on Riverdale Avenue, when his mother stopped to talk to a friend near West 236th Street. The women were so engrossed in their conversation that neither of them noticed as the baby sped toward a retaining wall. A man driving north on the avenue saw the stroller, got out of his car and ran on an intercept course. He caught the stroller only seconds before it struck the wall.

Later in the year, a late-night fire in a 130-year-old home was only prevented from becoming a funeral pyre for the eight children, seven adults and two family pets that lived there because of the quick action of one of the residents. She was woken by the heat of the flames and quickly woke the others up. The families lost more than $10,000 in property, but no one was hurt.

And later in the year, in Spuyten Duyvil, a series of burglaries ended in a high-speed car chase and arrest. Residents heard a series of pistol shots echo through the air, followed by the sound of screeching tires. The three burglars had just stolen $300 in property from a home near Johnson Avenue when several police cars cornered them. They tried to escape in a 1948 De Soto convertible, but couldn't outrun the police and crashed into an embankment on Palisade Avenue.