Mariska Hargitay halts production of ‘SVU’ when lost child mistakes her for police officer

Mariska Hargitay is the lead actress of the cop show 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'. Photo: Handout

While filming an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in New York City, lead actress Mariska Hargitay was approached by a young girl.

If you didn’t know any better, you would think it was a part of the script. But it wasn’t.

According to People, while dressed in her SVU gear, the little girl mistook Hargitay for a real-life police officer. The little girl was accidentally separated from her mum and needed help.

The child was at the Anne Loftus Playground in Fort Tryon Park when she got separated from her mum. Hargitay stopped what she was doing to help.

Minutes later, the mum and little girl were reunited.

The incident reportedly occurred on April 10.

It’s unclear if even the girl’s mum knew who Hargitay was, but thankfully Hargitay was in the right place at the right time to help them reunite.

On social media, people praised Hargitay for her good deed, saying “I swear to God she’s actually Olivia Benson,” referring to her SVU character.

“Imagine, you (lose) your kid and Olivia Benson brings them back to you,” another commenter wrote.

“Can we love Mariska any more?”

Neither Hargitay or the child’s mum has spoken out about the moment publicly.

Hargitay is a mum herself, so she knows a thing or two about caring for young ones. In a January interview with People, she opened up about being an older mum.

“I’m so grateful that I’m an older mum. Grateful that I became successful older. I don’t know if I could have handled it when I was younger,” she admitted.

Hargitay married her husband, actor Peter Hermann, 20 years ago in 2004 when she was 40. She was 42 when their oldest August was born in 2007 and 46 when they adopted Amaya and Andrew in 2011.

“When I was younger I wasn’t as present but as I’ve gotten older I’ve started to accept and appreciate,” she continued telling People. “And now I’m going to savour this moment. I want to share my lessons and where there is pain that I can fix that really inspires me to lighten the load.” – The Charlotte Observer/Tribune News Service