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Dashcam video recorded the heroic rescue by Officers Ryan Hensperger and Rob Thuring on the Route 18 overpass 50 or so feet above the busy turnpike.
The officers approached cautiously but quickly -- then made the most of an instant when the man let down his guard.
"He was receptive of me talking to him," Thuring told ABC7 Eyewitness News. "I kept moving closer and closer to him...He said a couple of things that made me realize the we were going to have to grab him."
That moment came when the man lifted his shirt to wipe his face.
He struggled once they grabbed him, pleading with the officers to let him fall.
"He let go and his feet were dangling," Hensperger said. "My body started to lean over the edge."
He and his partner then yanked the man over the railing onto the road.
"You're OK, buddy," one of them tells him.
WATCH THE VIDEO: East Brunswick officers save man trying to jump off New Jersey Turnpike overpass
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