3 Babies Abandoned by Their Families : Infants: Police are asking the public to help find the parents.

Three abandoned babies were found in Los Angeles and Orange counties in the last week--a newborn left in a cardboard box in a gutter, another days-old infant discovered lying on a bed in a motel hours after her parents had checked out, and a 5-month-old nestled between diapers and dirty socks in a laundry basket.

“Dear friends--Please look after my son,” read a note tucked into a laundry basket containing an abandoned baby boy that was found Wednesday about 7 a.m. behind a Culver City office building.

The note continued: “He is a fine healthy baby. My girlfriend and I broke up and I simply can’t give him the kind of care he deserves. I know you can.” It was signed by Roger Brown Jr., police said Thursday.

The baby, whose name is Roger, according to the note, was found by a claims agent arriving for work at the state Disability Insurance Claims Office in the 3700 block of Sepulveda Boulevard, Detective Ken Wheat said.

The agent, Virginia Tracy, said: “As soon as I picked him up, he stopped crying. It looked like whoever left him took the time to zip up his little sweat suit jacket and pull the hood over his head. All you could see was a little nose and these huge, dark eyes.”

Police said the baby was alert but had a slight cold.

“He coughed a little and had a bit of a runny nose,” Wheat said.

But the baby appeared to be well cared for, he added.

“Whoever left him put socks on his hands to keep warm,” Tracy said. “And double socks on his feet.”

The child is in a foster home in West Covina, authorities said.

An hour after Roger was found, a newborn girl was discovered in a San Clemente neighborhood, authorities said. The baby had been wrapped in a piece of blue cloth and tucked inside a cardboard box that was placed at the side of a street.

The infant, two to three days old, was taken to Samaritan Medical Center, where she was in good condition after being treated for hypothermia and dehydration, police said.

A third infant was found at the Chateau Motel in the 6700 block of Sepulveda Boulevard in Van Nuys on Dec. 7.

A young Latino couple had rented a room that afternoon, Los Angeles Police Sgt. Dave Dempsey said Thursday. The couple said they only needed the room briefly. Motel employees later discovered the baby girl on the bed.

The infant, who was wearing a hospital-type paper gown with pink-and-blue teddy bears, was two or three days old when found, the sergeant said.

The child has been placed in the care of a San Fernando Valley foster family.

Police are asking for public cooperation in finding the parents of the children.

Social workers said emotional and financial pressures during the holiday season may have been a factor in the abandonments.

“Especially as it gets closer to Christmas, we have parents who are truly at the end of their rope,” said Evelyn Syverson, a Children’s Services social worker.

“If you were already feeling that you were not competent at surviving and that you don’t count for much in this world, the Christmas season doesn’t help. If neighbors’ kids are getting Nintendo games and you can’t put food on the table, your sense of self worth is certainly going to get aggravated.”

When parents are unable to care for a child, she said, they can call a countywide 24-hour help line by dialing the operator and asking for Zenith 2-1234.

“Don’t just leave the child on a doorstep,” she said.