Infant Left at Car Wash; Abandoned Toll Rises

As social workers tried to find the parents of an 8-month-old girl abandoned in Encinitas on the weekend, another baby was found Tuesday by customers at a car wash in Escondido.

The Escondido infant girl--less than one hour old--is the fifth abandoned child since December whose parents have not been identified, said Carol Baenziger, a spokeswoman for the San Diego County Department of Social Services.

The newborn infant was found shortly after 11 a.m. in a cardboard box at the Super Wash self-serve car wash, said Escondido Police Sgt. Ken Burkett.

Two young men washing their car heard muffled cries coming from a box on one side of a cleaning bay, said Detective William Wolfe. The baby was wrapped in a tan towel and covered by a pair of adult-sized white sweat pants, Wolfe said.

The infant had been wiped clean, but the umbilical cord was still attached, Wolfe said. The baby was listed in good condition at Palomar Medical Center Tuesday night, Wolfe said.

Because of the way the box was placed--visible, but out of the way of cars--police said the mother probably expected that the baby would be found alive. The car wash is east of downtown in the 1200 block of East Washington Avenue.

Wolfe can be contacted at 741-4785.

On Saturday at San Dieguito High School in the 800 block of Santa Fe Drive in Encinitas, a passerby found an abandoned girl on a lawn next to the gymnasium, said San Diego County Sheriff’s Deputy Victoria Reden. About 200 people were on campus to attend an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, Reden said. No one in the group responded to deputies’ queries about the baby.

The baby appeared “well-fed and strong,” Reden said. In a news conference Tuesday afternoon, sheriff’s and county officials asked for the public’s help in identifying the child.

The baby was found wearing diapers and a long-sleeved T-shirt with colorful bows across the chest. There was also an empty baby bottle nearby, Reden said.

The baby, who county workers call “Baby Jane Doe,” is in the custody of a foster family.

The Child Protective Services Department is also trying to find the parents of three other babies: an infant boy placed in a trash bin south of downtown San Diego in December; a baby girl found in January in the bed of a pickup truck at Plaza Bonita shopping center in Chula Vista, and 2-year-old Eric Wilson, who was left unclaimed at a day-care center in National City in July.

Anyone with information may contact Baenziger at 338-2944.