Emaciated Baby Found in Mall Parking Lot

A 2-month-old “extremely malnourished and dehydrated” boy was found abandoned in a busy strip mall parking lot Thursday evening, and police are asking for help in locating his mother.

A Fullerton woman backing her car out of a parking space felt something brush the side of her car and got out to find the tiny child tucked into a wicker basket and wrapped in a blanket, police said.

The infant was rushed to Children’s Hospital of Orange County, where he was given fluids and, by midafternoon Friday, upgraded from serious to guarded condition, officials said. The child was so emaciated on arrival that the treatment added more than a pound to his body weight by early evening.

“He was very sick, almost to the point of starvation,” La Habra Police Det. Ron Braasch said. The fluids made a dramatic difference, “because when you’re down that much in fluids, the change happens quick,” he said.

The baby was doing “a lot better” by Friday evening, Braasch said.

Police searched Friday for the child’s parents, who could face a felony charge of child abandonment, but found no leads.

The basket and child were left in the strip mall at 1201 S. Beach Blvd., which is next to the busy intersection of Imperial Highway and Beach Boulevard, a hub for traffic and bus lines.

The woman who found the child at 7:15 p.m. was not identified by police, but she told detectives that the basket was not there when she arrived at the Weight Watchers storefront 30 minutes earlier. No witnesses could be found for clues to who abandoned the child.

The Police Department got more than a dozen phone calls Friday from well-wishers offering donations for the child and even some callers offering to take the infant in as a foster child. “The woman that found him also called and offered to take him in,” Braasch said.

The baby will be taken by the Orange County Department of Children and Family Services after his release from the hospital until his custody can be determined. The child was described as white, about 5 or 6 pounds when found, with blond hair and blue eyes.

Anyone with information on the baby’s identity or his parents is asked to call Braasch at (562) 905-9788 or the La Habra Police Department’s anonymous hotline at (562) 905-9611.