Mystery “baby” in Austin viral video of first steps found

AUSTIN, Texas – Earlier this month, an Austin filmmaker discovered a VHS tape in a VCR he bought at Goodwill. Since then, he took to social media to find the baby in the video and return this precious memory.

It turns out that the baby in the video is now a grown man living in North Austin.

“I was 10 months in that video, I lived in Rhode Island and now I’m 26 years old as of December 5th,” said Tyre Alexander, the baby seen in the now-viral video.

Alexander said he is still in shock someone not only found the old VHS tape of him taking his first steps but was also looking to return the video.

“It was really touching that it resonated with someone to be like ‘hey you need that memory’ that was pretty cool,” said Alexander.

Jim McKay, who stumbled across the 1994 VHS tape, took steps of his own in trying to locate Alexander, turning to both the news and social media.

“Just hanging out having a couple drinks, next thing I know is my mom is like ‘hey you know you’re on the news right now yeah you’re walking as a baby’,” said Alexander.

RELATED: Austin man finds prized family possession inside donated VCR

According to Alexander the clip was recorded in Rhode Island. Being in a military family, he’s made several moves since then until eventually ending up in Austin where his mother donated a VCR player to a local Goodwill in order to free up space.

“She didn’t even sell it, she donated it, just getting rid of stuff in her apartment and said alright here’s this box, we don’t need any of that and it can bless somebody else so she gave it to Goodwill,” said Alexander.

The VCR player turned to contain one of Alexander’s most precious moments and that very Goodwill where McKay found the tape was right under Alexander’s nose.

RELATED: Austin man claims to have found the “baby” in 1994 VHS tape from Goodwill

“It’s crazy how it all worked out, the Goodwill he found it at, my brother used to work there, I lived right down the street from there, I graduated from Westwood High School right there, it’s all right here, it’s such a small world. Even me and Jim realizing we live five miles from each other this whole time, it took over 33 thousand people to retweet it in order to get back to me,” said Alexander.

Now with this memory and video returned to Alexander, he said he occasionally checks VCR players in the hopes of one day returning the favor. “I went into Goodwill and I saw 3 VHS players and I opened them up just to see,” said Alexander.
 
Alexander has come a long way since his first steps, now he’s a coach and mentor. He said seeing his own first steps has motivated him to continue pushing forward.

“That’s the story of your life, you have to keep taking those first steps, you have to surround yourself with people that care for you and support you and that’s really what that video shows,” said Alexander.