For a short time on Monday afternoon, the Christmas manger at a NY City church could have passed for the real thing: A newborn baby, with the umbilical cord still attached, was abandoned there.
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The mother appears to be holding something wrapped in a black jacket and buying products at the store counter.
NY City police Lt. Tarik Sheppard said police are trying to locate a woman seen on a church surveillance tape dropping off the infant.
The baby was wrapped in purple towels and placed next to the Virgin Mary in the wooden manger that was built about an hour before the discovery, the NY Daily News reported. He was later brought to Jamaica Hospital, where he was assessed to have a birth weight and length of 5.2 pounds and 17 inches, respectively.
NY State law allows a parent to abandon a newborn baby during the first 30 days of its life – anonymously and without fear of prosecution – if the baby is left in a safe manner. However, police say parents must leave the baby in someone’s care or alert them to the baby’s presence, which the mother neglected to do. The crying infant, umbilical cord still attached, was found Monday by a custodian of the church, the same man who had set up the nativity scene before taking his lunch break.
He told the Post that several families have already expressed interest in adopting him.
Police have obtained CCTV footage of a woman with a baby near the church, who is then seen again later without a baby, however they are not releasing the footage.
Call it a Christmas miracle – before Thanksgiving.
“The secretary burst in and said, ‘Father, there’s an emergency in the church, you have to come, ‘” Heanue said.
Police said the mother could face charges since she didn’t notify anyone where the baby was being left.
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“This child, we believe, is a gift, almost, to this parish”, said Heanue.
