A woman was spotted strolling through New York City with a newborn baby just before allegedly abandoning the infant in a crowded subway station. Surveillance footage released by the police captured an unidentified woman making her way to the 34th Street-Penn Station stop in Midtown Manhattan. The baby girl, found wrapped in a blanket at the base of a staircase in a subway passageway leading to the northbound platform of the No. 1 train around 9:30 am on Monday, was in stable condition and alert after being rushed to Bellevue Hospital following an anonymous 911 call.
According to state officials, the baby still had her umbilical cord attached. Authorities are on the lookout for the woman seen in the surveillance footage for questioning but no arrests have been made yet. New York City Transit President Demetrius Crichlow referred to the incident as the “Miracle on 34th Street” during a press conference, expressing gratitude for the swift response of the FDNY and police department in caring for the abandoned baby.
Under New York State law, abandoning a child under 14 years old is considered a felony. However, the Abandoned Infant Protection Act offers protection to parents who leave newborns in safe locations like hospitals, police stations, or fire stations without the need to disclose their identity if the baby is under 30 days old.
Instances of babies being abandoned in the city’s subway system are rare. Past cases include a homeless woman charged in 2014 for leaving her 11-month-old daughter at Columbus Circle, and a heartwarming story from 2000 where a man discovered a newborn boy at a subway station who was later adopted and named “baby Ace” by a couple.
