Chicago Police Department
A passer-by was about to take the handles from the discarded furniture — when she noticed something inside.
A newborn baby has been discovered stuffed in a set of drawers discarded in a Chicago alleyway... alive.
A woman was passing by the dumped furniture in the Montclare neighborhood around 8 AM Tuesday morning, when the handles on the drawers caught her eye, and she decided to try remove and recycle them. That's when she noticed something inside one of them.
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View StoryA baby boy, no more than days old, had been abandoned, wrapped in rosary beads, his tiny mouth filled with vomit.
"I put my finger on the little foot too, just to see he was moving," the woman, who asked not to be named, told NBC Chicago.
She immediately called 911 and rendered aid until first responders turned up to take over. The baby was then taken to Lurie Children's Hospital.
Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford told the Chicago Sun-Times he was in good condition, and had no visible injuries.
"It's a good thing somebody came by," he said. "It's hot out there, it could've ended differently, but it's all seemingly worked out."
According to the Department of Streets and Sanitation, the garbage in the alley was due to be collected that same day.
On Wednesday, police released the baby's picture, calling for information as they attempted to track down his parents.
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His rescuer said it was divine intervention she had stumbled across him.
"I found him that is the greatest thing," she said. "Every time I think about the little details, it just makes me mad. So I'm just gonna focus on the miracle that I was there, and that everybody showed up on time because I was shaking. I was shaking so bad."
Local residents were horrified by the discovery.
"It's very heartbreaking to hear something like that," one neighbor told ABC7, "I don't get it. I really don't because you have so many other places, you could have dropped it at a hospital... firehouse, church. You could have even rang my doorbell I would have taken the baby and left. Anything but leaving it in that drawer."
On Wednesday, Chicago PD reminded the public of Safe Haven laws, which allow new parents to hand over newborns up to 30 days old that they cannot care for, at any police station or hospital — no questions asked.
Chatham County Police Department
