By Michael Kimball
The Oklahoman
SHAWNEE, Okla. — Shawnee fire Lt. Chuck Tade was asleep in the bedroom of his fire station early Saturday when he heard his station captain take a call.
“I opened the door to see what was going on and he (the captain) said, ‘The dispatcher’s out here and thinks there’s a baby in the back of your truck,’ ” Tade said Sunday.
“So I ran to the window, and the guy who is in the back with me runs to the window, and we’re both looking out and he (the captain) comes back with a laundry basket.”
Inside the laundry basket were newborn twins, a boy and a girl, later determined by doctors to be healthy and unharmed, Shawnee police said. Officer Daniel Hill reported the infants had small rubber bands around their umbilical cords and were accompanied by a note that stated, “Take care of my babies. I’m poor and can’t do it.”
Tade said Shawnee authorities first received a call about the babies about 1:05 a.m., but dispatchers couldn’t understand the caller. They reviewed the tape until about 6 a.m., when they decided it sounded like the caller said she left two babies in the back of a black truck at a fire station.
The dispatcher, by then off duty, drove to one of Shawnee’s three fire stations and didn’t see a black pickup, Tade said.
Then, about 6:30 a.m., the dispatcher arrived at Station 3, 306 E MacArthur St., where she saw the black pickup, called her colleagues in the dispatch center and told them to alert the firefighters inside.
“We got dressed, changed them (the babies) and made sure everything was all right with them,” Tade said. “It had been raining on them a little bit, but they seemed to be fine.”
Police said they don’t think a crime was committed because state law allows parents to leave infants up to a week old at several types of public facilities, including fire stations, but officers will submit a report to prosecutors for review.
Tade said he went to the hospital Saturday afternoon to check on the newborn twins.
“The nurse gave me a thumbs-up,” he said.
The babies have been placed in state Department of Human Services custody, officials said.
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