Two babies abandoned just hours apart
FOX 26 Reporter Damali Keith has more on what happened and what parents can do if they’re feeling overwhelmed.
PASADENA, Texas – Two babies were found abandoned in the Houston area just a few hours apart.
A 2-month-old baby was found by Pasadena Police Officers on Monday morning in a car seat sitting outside a dumpster in a strip center just behind several restaurants on Crenshaw Road near Beltway 8. Sadly, this makes three babies abandoned in the Houston area in just about a month.
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According to the Pasadena Police Department, a father made an emergency call around 4:15 a.m. Monday morning saying he was having a mental health crisis and was searching for a safe place to leave the infant.
The father also told the mother where to find the baby, and officers discovered the infant near the dumpster in a fenced area “healthy and in good condition.” CPS has been contacted.
Just hours before that, on Sunday afternoon, residents in the Gulfton area heard crying coming from a dumpster on Dashwood Drive near Bellaire Boulevard and Renwick. That’s where they found a baby boy in the trash bin, inside a bag. The baby was said to be in “good health and turned over to CPS.”
Last month, a young man was captured on camera leaving a newborn baby girl, hours old with the umbilical cord still attached, wrapped only in a towel near the Bear Creek walking trail on Casa Martin Drive in the Plantation Lakes Subdivision.
All of these babies could have been safely dropped off at a hospital or fire station under the Baby Moses Law.
“Those are tragic stories, and they are stories that don’t need to happen. If a citizen has a newborn that is 60 days or younger, they are able to drop them off at a fire station or a hospital and those individuals will not ask them any information about themselves. The most information they are permitted to ask them about is maybe the baby’s medical history to make sure the baby is getting the best medical care,” explains Martee Boose with the Houston Fire Department.
Under the Baby Moses Law, parents who safely leave their 60-day-old or younger baby with someone at a fire station or hospital do not have to fear prosecution.
If a parent is feeling overwhelmed and the infant is older than 60-days-old, they are encouraged to contact CPS.
