Mother Leaves Baby In Car With A Note Saying She’s Gone Shopping

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A New Zealand mother has provoked anger after she left her newborn baby alone in a locked vehicle outside a supermarket with a note saying that she had gone shopping.

The message, written from the baby’s perspective, had the women’s mobile number on it and urged people to call her if necessary.

A shocked passer-by photographed the sleeping baby, visible through the window, on Saturday.

The note read: ‘My mum’s in doing the shopping, call her if I need anything.’

The man who saw the note after parking with his family next to the car said: ‘We waited there for a little bit, wondering if the mum was just going to be two seconds and come back.’

 Speaking to the New Zealand Herald, he said: ‘My wife said, I’m not going in without someone being here with the baby.’

Two other passers-by agreed to wait by the vehicle after one of them phoned the mother and told her to come back.

The baby was in a baby seat, wearing a warm hat and wrapped in a pink blanket.

A radio DJ Polly Gillespie posted the picture to Facebook which attracted nearly 1,500 comments in 24 hours.

A Facebook user, Cat Marie Horne, wrote: ‘I’m sorry this is completely irresponsible! You do not leave children under the age of 14 unsupervised at all. Why did she have time to write a note?? Secondly, you do not put a capsule seat in the front of a car, due to dashboard airbags. Also, if you are that tired you should not be driving.’

Another commentator, Linda Gill, said: ‘It’s not something I would have done but I choose not to come on here and condemn her.

‘It’s very easy to come on here and cast judgement on others, because I’m sure you’ve never, ever done anything wrong in your lives.

‘The difference is someone took a photo this time. Aren’t you all glad that someone isn’t following you around with a camera. (Aimed at no one in particular, just food for thought).’

Marty Fryer, The supermarket’s compliance manager, said he was not aware of what happened until someone alerted him to it yesterday.He added: ‘We have staff in the car park so if they saw something like a baby in a car they would bring it to our attention.’

Police said it was a dangerous thing to do and that the Mother could be prosecuted but they have not received any reports of the incident.

A spokeswoman for the force said: ‘We don’t know who the people are, we don’t know the phone number, we don’t know where to start.

 ‘We would launch an investigation if we could but at this stage no one’s come forward.’