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Newborn Baby Found Abandoned In Merced Dumpster

MERCED (CBS13) — A newborn baby was found abandoned in a dumpster, wrapped in a towel and unhurt.

A couple discovered the newborn inside a Merced dumpster while they were looking for recyclables at an apartment complex on D Street.

"I tapped her right here underneath and on her chest and she threw out a scream, I knew she was alive. Alive," said Annette Alvarez.

Through tears, she describes the panic and fear she felt early Thursday morning.

"I did not ever think that here in our backyard. You know, a small little town," she said.

It was a whirlwind day for the Merced couple. A man was going through the trash outside the Alvarez's home at Sunnyside Apartments. When he found a newborn laying among the recycled trash, he screamed for help and Jimmy Alvarez came running.

"A bunch of food and gnats flying around it," he said. "Didn't think about it, reached in."

The baby girl looked only hours old with her umbilical cord still attached. He took off his shirt to wrap the newborn and warm her up. His wife nurtured the little one as Jimmy called 911.

"Nobody having a child, you don't want it take it somewhere, knock on somebody's door, here I don't want it," he said.

The baby was taken to the hospital and is expected to be OK. But for the Merced community, it was a day they will likely never forget.

Police are looking for the mother of the newborn, who they fear may be in need of medical attention.

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