Mother Of Abandoned Infant Blames Drugs

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In Lakewood, Washington, the mother of a baby found abandoned early on Monday morning in the grass will be jailed, police have confirmed.

The woman has blamed drugs for what happened, police said. The woman was found on Monday morning and was taken to a hospital for treatment. The infant’s father has already been taken into custody on Monday on an outstanding misdemeanor warrant, police said.

The incident unfolded at about 1:30 a.m. on Monday as officers were called to the 8500 block of John Dower Road Southwest for a report that a 3-month-old infant was found.

A woman who was walking home from the grocery through the residential neighborhood, reportedly heard what she thought was an animal in distress. She then used the flashlight on her cell phone and found a little child lying in the grass.

The woman called 911 and officers responded, along with medics from West Pierce Fire and Rescue. The baby was cold, but otherwise in good health and no injuries. The outdoor temperature at the time was 41 degrees.

“In my 26 years of law enforcement I don’t think I’ve seen a child abandoned in a yard like this,” Officer Lawler said. “It’s extremely fortunate that somebody was going by and got to the child before his core temperature dropped or something else happened. The fortunate part of this is that the child is fine.”

The child was taken to a local hospital and then placed into protective custody with Child Protective Services.

At St. Claire Hospital in Lakewood on Monday, a woman was saying that she is the mother of the child and that she had seen media coverage of the abandoned infant. She told police that she was at a Lakewood home on Sunday night and was doing drugs.

She said she became paranoid and grabbed her baby. She began to run, believing that she was being chased. Police said that she had admitted to leaving the baby in a front yard in the hopes that someone would find him.

The woman was found running at 7:07 a.m. at South 74th Street and South Tyler Street in Tacoma and then taken to the hospital.

The woman’s husband came to the hospital as detectives were talking to her. He told detectives he had last seen his baby with his wife Sunday night. He said he left because he was arguing with her and that he did not have any idea the baby had been abandoned.

Police say that the mother will be jailed once she is medically cleared.