Construction workers don’t just remodel, rebuild, restore, and repair. They also rescue.

Heroes in hard hats routinely unearth buried treasures, chase down bad guys, find lost pets, and move people and animals out of harm’s way. One crew member in Texas even saved an abandoned newborn baby from a construction Dumpster earlier this year.

Here are some of their stories:

Here, kitty

After spotting a woman trying to climb into a Dumpster filled with industrial waste at a New Bern, NC, job site in September, construction workers learned that a scared, feral kitten was inside—and they decided to help.

So they arrived on the job a couple of hours early the next day and unloaded the Dumpster—one piece of scrap metal and bag of waste at a time so as not to accidentally poke or crush the kitten—until they found the frightened feline about four inches from the bottom of the trash heap.   

The woman who had been trying to rescue the tiny cat took custody and nursed the animal back to health.

Guardian angels

It took just a second for two San Diego construction workers to spring to their feet after they saw a small sedan plunge off of the side of Rose Canyon and tumble down the hill last month.

The laborers, who had been pouring concrete for a city sidewalk, slid themselves about 60 feet down the canyon’s sloped side, where the car was teetering after turning onto its side. The bottom of the canyon was 100 feet farther down.

The two men grabbed onto the uphill side of the car and held tight until emergency workers arrived to remove the elderly driver, who called his rescuers his “guardian angels.”

Digging up the past

Construction workers near Freemont, CA, began the job with instructions to dig through sandstone in an isolated canyon, where they were to build a 220-foot-high dam at the Calaveras Reservoir. But within a month, they were digging instead for the prehistoric skeletons of an extinct hippopotamus, a 40-foot shark, a giant whale and various clams, mussels and other marine fossils.

The initial dig—in 2011— stopped when workers found teeth and bones that paleontologists believe are about 20 million years old. Since then, they have found nine whale skulls and more than 500 fossilized pieces of scallops, sharks, plants, pine cones and animal tracks.

Paleontologists continue to work alongside the construction workers as the fossils are moved and dam construction carefully moves forward.

Shattered glass

Everything shattered and broke when St. Cloud, FL, construction workers demolished an abandoned 1915 bungalow in August—including a bunch of glass jars containing more than 2,000 coins weighing more than 60 pounds.

Construction workers said they were hoping they could keep the treasure, but the city, which is appraising the loot, had other plans.

The coin collection, which officials speculate was stashed away in the house and forgotten by its owner, includes half-dollars, quarters, dimes and nickels dating back to 1917.

Poor baby

A Texas construction worker was just taking out the trash on an early February morning this year when he found a newborn baby inside a white garbage bag in the Dumpster.

The 51-year-old laborer told a local TV station: "He was cold. Maybe hours old."

The man took the baby to his car to warm him up and wait for paramedics, who took the infant to the hospital. The baby’s 16-year-old mother later admitted she had abandoned the boy.

Foiled again

Remodelers working on a house in Cape Girardeau, MO, stopped a robbery in progress last month when they saw a would-be burglar break a window at a nearby home and chased him down.

Standing outside of their client’s house eating lunch, the two workers watched the man turn and see them, and then start running. Once they caught him, they held him until police arrived.

Similarly, a member of a road construction crew chased down a teenage burglar who had been breaking into houses in a quiet Rochester, NY, neighborhood.

The worker noticed the suspicious teen, who was running between two houses and looking over his shoulder, and took off after him. Neighbors who witnessed the chase called police, who arrived just in time for the crew member to chase the burglar right into a barricade they had set up with their cars.