Teens to the rescue. (The Goodness of America).

At around 9:30 p.m. on April 25th, three 18-year-old high school seniors pulled into the parking lot of a bank in Cooper City, Florida. Oliver Beliard of Cooper City, a front-seat passenger, glanced to the east to check for traffic when he witnessed a westbound vehicle swerve and plunge into a canal.

Kenny Florio of Ft. Lauderdale, driving the teens' car, promptly sped to the site. He handed the third youth, Daniel Lennon of Copper City, a center-hole punch that his grandfather had given him a year earlier. He told the next day's South Florida Sun-Sentinel, "To be honest, I thought it was ridiculous. I actually had it in my car for a weapon." As it turned out, however, grandfather knew best.

As described by Sun-Sentinel reporter Vicky Agnew, "The sport-utility vehicle was half submerged and sinking fast. Only the tail lights were showing, and the driver was screaming for help." Daniel Lennon stripped to his boxer shorts and, carrying the center-hole punch, dove into the canal and swam toward the sinking vehicle, drifting away. He "swam through the murky water, busted Out the driver's window with [the] center-hole punch and his fist and pulled the frightened woman to safety."

Meanwhile, Florio and Beliard stayed on the bank to call 911 and try to flag down additional help (nobody stopped).

Lennon told the Sun-Sentinel, "You could hear her screaming from the shore. By the time I got to the car, [water] was coming up past the center console" and Mrs. Shameeza Ishahak, 34, of Pembroke Pines "was screaming and saying, 'I can't swim, I can't swim.'"

Once free of the car, "Ishahak thrashed around in the water, so Lennon said he pulled her to the bank by her hands." Once safely on land, "she fell to her knees and began thanking him," effusing "I'll never forget what you did." She was not seriously injured, nor was her young rescuer, who suffered a few minor cuts on his arm from the broken glass. He told reporter Agnew, "I didn't think twice. I think anybody else would do the same thing."

Police hailed as heroes the three youths, who attend St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Ft. Lauderdale. After graduating, Florio and Beliard plan to attend college, as does Lennon after a stint in the Navy.