The Dallas City Council honored the heroism of three sanitation workers on Wednesday.
The three-man crew of Larry Jones, Steve Thurman and Douglas Rochelle work together daily and, on one fateful day, they also saved a life.
Jones spotted two dogs dragging what he thought was a trash bag at the end of the day.
"The closer we got, it appeared to be a boy," Thurman said.
"It was a little boy on the ground, struggling, out of breath," Jones said.
Both said they reacted instinctively and jumped out their truck to help. The dogs appeared to be trying to drag the boy into the alley.
Jones grabbed a pitchfork normally used to help gather trash, brush and debris and swung at one dog twice. The force of the blow broke the wooden handle of the pitchfork in half.
Meanwhile, Thurman kicked the second dog that was attacking 9-year-old Shannon Craig.
The men eventually fought the dogs off.
"After we got the dogs off, we could see bites on him," Thurman said. "We weren't sure how many. He was disoriented."
Driver Douglas Rochelle called 911 and directed animal control to vicious dogs when they arrived.
"I'm glad we were at the right place at the right time because had the dogs gotten him in there we wouldn't have seen him at all and who knows what would have happened," he said.
The men received a standing ovation at a Dallas City Council meeting.
"I'm proud to be a mayor of the city of Dallas with folks like you that are among my associates so thank you very much," Mayor Mike Rawlings said.
But for the three men, it was all in a day's work.
"I was just glad to see him up and well and again and moving around being a little boy again," Rochelle said.
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