A high-risk sex offender saved a three-year-old child standing in the middle of an intersection early Tuesday.

The man, a level-three sex offender, was driving home from work around 2:55 a.m. when he saw a child wearing only a diaper standing in the middle of the road at 48th Street and Leighton Avenue, said Lincoln Police Chief Tom Casady.

The man took the child to a nearby gas station and called police, Casady said.

Two other drivers also saw the child. They waited with the man and  the child until police arrived, Casady said.

The child had let itself out of the house while its parents were sleeping, Casady said. The parents were cited for neglect.