By O’Ryan Johnson and Laura Crimaldi
The Boston Herald
BOSTON — The abandoned baby boy of a “scared” young mother was shivering in a trash-strewn alley when, in a miraculous stroke of luck, neighbors heard his desperate cries, one of his East Boston rescuers recounted yesterday.
Deysi Vargas said she was preparing for bed when her brother and her husband heard the baby’s cries. The three followed the tiny wails to the alley below, where they spotted the naked infant lying alone amid the trash on Monday, garbage night.
The horrified good Samaritans sprang into action: Vargas’ husband ran to alert firefighters at a nearby station and she raced inside to get a blanket that she tossed into the alley, which runs between Saratoga Street triple-deckers.
Then, because there was no way into the alley from the street, her brother climbed out of her first-floor apartment window and lowered himself down. He stayed there with the child until firefighters were able to tear down the barrier.
When he was carried out of the alley at about 10 p.m., Vargas said, the baby appeared unharmed.
“He looked fine,” she said. “He was shivering. . . . I started cryingwhen I saw him, ‘cause he’s just a baby.”
Child welfare authorities took custody of the boy, a state Department of Children and Families spokeswoman said. Authorities said the baby is in good condition and being treated at Massachusetts General Hospital, where the mother was also taken.
No charges have been filed and the incident is under investigation, police said.
Members of the Boston Police Department’s Child Abuse unit and crime scene technicians last night served a search warrant on the second floor of the Saratoga Street triple-decker that residents said was the home of the baby’s mother, whom they described as a scared teenager.
“Every time she saw someone on the street, she always used to hide her stomach,” said Jessica Ventura, 18, who did not know the mother personally. “She didn’t want anyone to know she was pregnant.”
Maria Pecora, 51, a grandmother who also lives on Saratoga, said the mother often wore baggy clothes.
“She was pregnant. I think she got scared,” Pecora said. “She’s a kid, a baby.”
Authorities yesterday pleaded with young mothers to take their unwanted babies to designated locations.
“We had a potential tragedy,” said state Rep. Carlo Basile, standing outside the nearby Saratoga Street fire station, where parents can leave any child up to seven days old under the state’s Safe Haven Law. “That mother could have come here and dropped the baby off.”
A newborn can be dropped off at any staffed fire, police station or hospital. Since the law was enacted in 2004, 14 newborns have been turned over to authorities in the Bay State, said Renee Marcou, a spokeswoman for Baby Safe Haven New England.
Copyright 2010 Boston Herald Inc.