Great catch: Utah pawn shop manager snags baby falling from counter

Surveillance video inside Family Pawn in Hurricane showed two women looking at firearms, KSTU reported. One of the women placed the child, whose gender was not revealed, on the store’s counter, the television station reported.

At one point, the child lost its balance and started to fall toward the concrete floor, KSTU reported.

Bill Reel, the pawn shop’s manager, was nearby and sprang into action., going to his knees to catch the child.

“I reacted, probably within an eighth of a second,” Reel told the television station. “I saw the baby bob just enough to show me that it could barely hold itself up and I just ran toward it.”

The surveillance video shows Reel catching the child before it hit the ground, according to KSTU.

“There is no doubt that would have been a serious injury, if not a brain injury as well,” Reel told the television station. “It was going headfirst into the concrete.”

Reel, a father of four children, said he believed the child was about 7 months old, but was unsure of its gender.

"I held the baby for a second or two and just collected my own thoughts and realized we avoided disaster there," Reel told KSTU. "I think life is precious and being a parent is hard enough. I would suggest parents just be careful."