A newborn girl was placed in a tote bag and left abandoned in front of a Bronx home as police urged the public to help find her mother.
According to the New York Daily News, a woman dropped the child off at the doorstep of a brick house in the borough on Dec. 29. A neighbor happened to see the bag and overheard crying coming from it. Calling 911, the man discovered a newborn baby wrapped in blankets within the tote.
“I didn’t want to mess up any evidence, but it was too cold,” Mamadou Hafiz Jallow recalled to PIX11. “I picked up the baby [and] put it inside the house where it was warm.”
The child survived the New York winter despite her estimated age of five days old. Medics later took the infant to the Jacobi Medical Center. The child now lies in stable condition.
However, the police continue their search of the woman who placed the precarious tote on that Bronx doorstep. While a New York law, the Abandoned Infant Protection Act does not criminalize those who abandon babies one month old or younger. They must leave the child in certain safe places and tell someone of its location.
Instead, the woman left the baby in a tote bag at a random house. The location also happened to be doors away from a nonprofit that specializes in health services.
Despite this, police have released surveillance footage that could lead to the presumed mother’s identity. The video revealed a woman in the area carrying the green tote the baby was found in.
However, the woman also wore a black face mask and a black coat over her body. Thus, her identification remains a considerable task. Regardless, authorities have implored the public to join in the search to gain some answers on the child’s abandonment.
Those who have any information regarding the woman or the child she left are asked to submit tips to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).
RELATED CONTENT: Google Maps Misroutes Vehicle Off Demolished Bridge, Killing Three Security Guards
