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Nassau Police Seek Mother Of Day-Old Abandoned Baby
By
Jen Chung
Published Jun 23, 2009
Modified Jun 23, 2009
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jun 23, 2009
Modified Jun 23, 2009
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On Sunday night, a man returning to his Hempstead, Long Island apartment building found a newborn baby in the lobby. According to Newsday, the baby was swaddled in a blanket and left in a shoebox, "She appeared to be less than a day old, police said, her umbilical cord tied off with dental floss, her skin light in color." A building resident said, "She was big and full, with chubby cheeks. Poor thing, she didn't have a diaper and she was all wet." Nassau County Det. Lt. Raymond Cote said, "We'd like to reach out to [the mother] and find out her motive, what the problem was that caused her to take such a drastic action to abandon her young child in the doorway of an apartment building at night." While the mother will face child abandonment charges, a police technician told the Daily News, "She must have been concerned about this child. [The baby] was left to be found. She was prepared properly." NY State has a Safe Haven law which allows parents of unwanted newborns to leave babies at safe places, such as hospitals, police stations and firehouses, without facing prosecution.
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abandoned baby
hempstead
nassau county
newborn
Safe Haven
Safe Haven law
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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