Police Search For Man Who Abandoned Baby In McDonald’s Restroom

Information From: WBTV

Published: November 13, 2008

Information From: WBTV
CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - Police are still looking for the man who abandoned an infant in the restroom of a McDonalds restaurant in South Charlotte early Wednesday morning.

Someone at the McDonalds dialed 911 around 9 a.m. and reported:  “We found a newborn in the ladies room and I think it’s freshly out, it still has it’s umbilical cord, and it’s naked.“

When police officers arrived at the McDonald’s on Rivergate Parkway, they found a newborn baby boy in the restroom.

The surveillance camera inside the restaurant videotaped a man walking into the restaurant with the child wrapped in blankets. 

Witnesses say he went into the restroom before bolting out of the door without the baby.

The man who left the baby in the restroom may not be the child’s father because he appears to be an African American.  The infant is a white child.

Peggy Eagan is with the Children and Family Services Center in Charlotte.  She says she has seen this kind of thing before.

“It could be a very young girl who was pregnant and not told anyone, or someone who is homeless and not sure how they’re going to take care of themselves, much less a baby,“ Eagan said.

Police say the infant was less than 4 hours old.  He is at Carolinas Medical Center and reportedly in good condition.

In North Carolina, there is a safe haven law that allows parents to drop of an unwanted child at a hospital, police or fire station without facing criminal charges.

The sad part of this story is the fact there was a fire station just about a mile away from the McDonald’s where the baby was abandoned.

If the child had been left there, fire fighters would have watched the child until paramedics arrived.

According to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, the man in the photo and the parents of the infant could face criminal charges.

WBTV’s Sarah Batista will have the very latest on this story, Thursday at 5 p.m.