TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa Solid Waste driver David Llanos will be honored by Tampa City Council today for his efforts to help a mother find her missing son.

It happened near Hubert Avenue and Leona Street in South Tampa.

“I was driving and I came to a stop at her house and serviced her actual can, and that’s when she stopped me,” Llanos said recounting the tense moments he helped the mother search the neighborhood for the missing boy.

“I started looking,” Llanos said. “I started looking for the kid through the bushes, throughout the neighborhood until I found him about a block down and I carried him back down to his mother.

“He had me in a choke hold, he wouldn’t let go. I guess he knew he was safe at that point.”

Waste drivers receive annual “See Something, Say Something” training by Tampa Police.

Marla Howel, Communications Coordinator for the City of Tampa Solid Waste Department, said the training is a yearly refresher for hundreds of drivers working on the streets of Tampa every day.

“Their eyes are everywhere at one time in their vehicle,” said Howell. “Looking straight ahead at the roadways, in their side mirrors, in their cameras and their surroundings in their neighborhoods. So what they do is very important.”

Llanos has been a driver for the department for more than 12 years.

He will receive a special commendation from City Council during its regularly scheduled meeting today.