Newark, N.J. police officer Jim Kneipp was out on routine patrol Wednesday morning, stopped in front of a McDonald's on Clinton Avenue, when he saw two people running out of the restaurant towards his vehicle.
"I thought it was being held up," Kneipp said. "Then when they got to my vehicle, they yelled out, 'There's a woman inside who just went into labor!'"
Kneipp rushed inside the restaurant and into the ladies' room, where he saw a woman on the floor "in full labor," he said.
"I tried to calm her down a little bit, went around and saw that the baby was crowning," Kneipp said. "I just tried to talk her through it, and next thing I knew, I had the baby's head in my hands."
The patrolman had to turn the baby's shoulder to help it fully come out, and once it was delivered, Kneipp had a two-month premature baby in his hands.
The baby and mother were taken to Beth Israel Medical Center and are reported to be in good health.
The experience was, Kneipp said, the first time in his 24 years on the job he ever felt scared. Yet, after he went to visit the mother and her baby at the hospital, Kneipp was able to sum up with a smile: "It was a good day."
