A Brooklyn mother abandoned her newborn baby outside an apartment building Sunday as temperatures hovered near freezing, police said.
Maria Solano, 28, left the baby boy in front of a building two doors down from her home and then rang several doorbells before running, cops said.
The boy - wrapped in a blanket and stuffed in a plastic bag - had his umbilical cord attached and was believed to be only a few hours old when he was discovered at 5:40 a.m., cops said. He was in stable condition at Lutheran Hospital.
"The poor little thing," said Louise Bascome, 72, who lives in the building on 68th St. in Bay Ridge, where the child was found. "I was horrified."
It was unclear why Solano, who has three other children under the age of 5, abandoned the seemingly healthy baby boy, police said.
Solano, who never appeared pregnant, moved into an apartment on 68th St. in November, neighbors said. She shared it with another woman, who had two children.
Investigators believe Solano left her home with the baby soon after giving birth, police said.
She ditched the boy after ringing several buzzers on the four-story building, police said.
"I heard a baby crying [but] I thought it was someone upstairs," said Maria Fabiani, 43, one of the residents to hear a doorbell buzz. "How can you leave a baby like that?"
Solano, arrested hours later, was charged with reckless endangerment and abandonment of a child, police said.
"[The cops] waited for her to get dressed and dress the kids and then took them out," neighbor Armando Luna said. "She looked calm. She wasn't afraid."
She was also treated at Lutheran. Solano lived just a few blocks from a FDNY firehouse, where she could have left the infant without fear of prosecution under the state's safe-haven laws, officials said.
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Originally Posted by ImNotLisa
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