The Dallas Morning News
ARLINGTON, Texas — A newborn was safe Friday after being left with firefighters.
The infant was left Thursday afternoon with personnel at Fire Station No. 10 in the 3200 block of Southwest Green Oaks Boulevard, said Alan Kassen, assistant chief for the Arlington Fire Department.
A woman had been seen sitting in her car outside the fire station about 3 p.m., Chief Kassen said. She returned about an hour later and dropped off the baby. She told fire personnel she found the infant, who was wrapped in a blanket, in a trash bin, he said. The umbilical cord was still attached.
Chief Kassen declined to give specifics about the incident, saying he wanted to protect the spirit of the state’s Baby Moses law, which allows people to drop off unwanted babies at designated safe places with no questions and no penalty.
He declined to confirm the sex of the baby or whether the person dropping off the child was a teenager. He said he suspected the person was the child’s mother but did not have confirmation.
The goal of the law is to keep unwanted children from becoming fatalities, Chief Kassen said. “The Baby Moses law did what it was supposed to do.”
The baby was taken to Medical Center of Arlington and placed under state custody. The person dropping off the child did not seek medical attention.