Dec 23, 2008 6:35 pm US/Central
Abandoned Baby Found On Woman's Doorstep
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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This newborn baby girl was abandoned in the cold vestibule of an Uptown apartment building.
CBS
A newborn baby is doing well Tuesday night after being abandoned at an Uptown apartment building Monday. CBS 2's Mai Martinez talked exclusively with the woman who found the child.
Illinois has a "safe haven" law which allows parents or guardians of a newborn to surrender the child, no questions asked, to someone working at a police station, a fire house or hospital.
But this baby was abandoned in the cold vestibule of an apartment building, so Chicago Police are now looking for the person who left her behind.
The baby is less than a week old, but she's already seen more hardship than any child should endure.
Monday night, the newborn was found abandoned outside a woman's door. The woman, who speaks very little English and asked CBS 2 not to use her name, says she and her son found the baby as they were leaving their home around 8:35 p.m.
She says, "I couldn't believe it. I said, 'how is this possible?' How is it possible a baby is here in my house?"
The woman says the baby, who was wet and crying from hunger, was only wearing a hospital shirt and diaper, and she was wrapped in what appeared to be hospital blankets.
They changed and fed the baby while they waited for authorities to pick her up.
"What bad people, in this weather. It's very cold," she says.
Many living in her building feel the same.
"To even fathom the idea that you would leave your own child, your own seed, sitting out there in the cold is a tragedy," said neighbor Greg Nelson.
"Why would people want to do that when they made a law and said leave them at a fire station, or take them to a police station, or hospital?" said neighbor Rosie Hall. "Why you still leaving poor babies that can't help themselves outside?"
Dawn Geras with the Save Abandoned Babies Foundation says people do it because many don't know the "safe haven" law exists. That's why she's pleading for help.
"I beg people - please tell somebody about this law," Geras said. "Don't let it happen again."
The baby is described as Hispanic and was said to have been doing well at Children's Memorial Hospital where she was taken.
As for the investigation, Chicago Police say they are still trying to locate the baby's mother. Anyone who thinks they might know who this baby is or who her parents are is asked to call Chicago Police.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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