On Tuesday, February 27th, at around 5:35pm, Sergeant Pete Scheuerer, who was on HOV duty cruising eastbound on the LIE in Dix Hills, heard on his radio that a baby was being born on the side of the road, just one exit away from him. Thirty seconds and a mile later, Scheuerer found the Hauppauge couple, Janine and Edward Livote, pulled over in the westbound HOV lane.

After a jump over the four-foot-tall median, the sergeant found newborn baby girl, Charlotte, being held in the father’s arms. The 911 dispatcher, Jon Hallock, had coached the couple on what to do. They were on their way to NYU Winthrop Hospital in Mineola, but the baby, who was already four days ‘overdue’, balked at crossing the county line.

Scheuerer recalls telling Mrs. Livote, “I don’t think you’re going to make it [to Mineola].” “She started to laugh…” he said. “I’ve never seen a mother like this. She was really controlled, calm, talking to me.”

This was Scheuerer’s third time delivering a baby as an NYPD officer, so he was able to notice that Charlotte was having a little trouble taking her first few breaths. He and the father laid the baby on the mother’s stomach, and Scheuerer dislodged a little clot of mucus from her throat.

As Mr. Livote was removing his shoelace to tie off the umbilical cord, highway Officer Brian Baumeister arrived on the scene and rushed over with his medical bag. They tied the umbilical cord off with the string from a surgical mask.

An ambulance from Dix Hills Fire Department took the parents and their newborn baby to Huntington Hospital, where both were in stable condition by Tuesday night.

As for Scheuerer, he said he tells people it’s not only skill, but also luck that makes a job well done: “Half this job is being in the right place at the right time.”