A viral video has surfaced on multiple social media websites that have left many speechless. The video surfaced on people’s timelines last week, which showed a young teenage girl walking into a New Jersey restaurant with a baby wrapped in a blanket. In the video, the girl is seen sitting down in the chair and it seems she’s talking with the employees in the restaurant as well as a customer that’s sitting at a table across from her. Fast forward within the video, the teenage girl hands the baby that was wrapped up in her arms to a woman in the restaurant before walking off.
The incident took place on May 19th at around 4 pm. The teenage girl who was identified as only being 14 years old gave her newborn baby which still had its umbilical cord attached, to a customer and her boyfriend before leaving. Before the 14-year-old handed her baby off, she did seem to ask for help from the Jersey City restaurant employees. Which the young teen calls for help prompted employees to contact the local police department.
Restaurant owner Frankie Aguilar told Penn Live that the teenager walked into the restaurant looking “a little desperate,” while holding the newborn baby in her arms.
As the video made rounds across social media, many people praised the customer Alease Scott, who was the one that held onto the baby as she waited for help. Scott was enjoying food at the restaurant with her boyfriend. She told ABC 7, that she asked the 14-year-old if she could check the baby’s vitals. Scott also explained how the girl “readily handed the baby over” so she could check the baby’s vitals. However, due to her attention on making sure the baby was okay, Scott didn’t notice that the girl had left without the baby.
Scott, who is trained in CPR said that she could tell that the baby was having trouble breathing. Which she informed the police, who responded with oxygen and other medical gear.
“Once I applied the oxygen mask to the baby, all of a sudden we heard the most beautiful cry and the baby started moving, she slightly opened up her eyes and then she closed her eyes, but the sweetest thing was when she got hungry and she was trying to suckle on the oxygen mask so we knew she was OK after that,” Scott said.
Many people raised questions if the 14-year-old would face any troubles for leaving the baby, but due to safe-haven laws, the 14-year-old was protected. Due to the event taking place in New Jersey, they have a Safe Haven’s Protection Act where parents or their representatives can anonymously surrender a newborn baby at any hospital emergency room, police station, fire station, ambulance, first aid, and rescue squads that are staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Before the incident that took place on Wednesday, the New Jersey Department of Children and Families tweeted about the law, confirming the process can be anonymous.
“If you’re stressed, if you feel like you have nowhere else to turn, or if you think you’ve run out of options, don’t panic,” the department tweeted, linking to the drop-off locations in the state.
The 14-year-old was found by the police later in the day and was taken to Jersey City Medical Center. After being detained for a short period of time, she was released and will not face any charges. The baby will also be put up for adoption.
