SAN ANTONIO, Texas – A one-day-old baby boy was found abandoned outside a Texas church for nearly 20 hours during the recent intense heat wave that saw temperatures soar far beyond triple digits.
San Antonio police say a man and a woman were seen on camera about 1 a.m. on July 17 carrying a basket into the parking lot of Grissom Road Church, according to a Crime Stoppers report on Wednesday.
The two then placed the basket by the back door of the church and left on foot. It wasn’t until about 8:50 p.m. when a bicyclist noticed something “suspicious” under the awning, police told FOX Weather.
104 MILLION TO SEE ABOVE-AVERAGE TEMPERATURES THURSDAY WITH EXTREME HEAT CONTINUING INTO NEXT WEEK
When he looked near the basket, he told police he noticed a baby’s leg sticking out with a black jacket over the basket. As he moved the jacket, that’s when he saw the baby inside.
The high temperature for the day was 110 degrees, police said. Yet despite the life-threatening temperatures, the newborn was not in distress and still had the umbilical cord attached to him, police said.
A note was found left at the scene along with the baby, investigators said. Texas Child Protective Services was later notified.
Back in June, Governor Greg Abbott signed SB 780 that expands the state’s “Baby Moses” law to provide greater accessibility to families in crisis by allowing the use of “baby boxes” to surrender a newborn to an emergency infant care provider.
The inclusion of the devices as an option to surrender a child will take effect Sept. 1.