Newborn baby girl found abandoned near Lakewood Center mall
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An abandoned newborn baby girl was discovered by a passerby early Sunday not far from the Lakewood Center mall, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.
The baby appeared to be only a few hours old when the passerby found the infant about 6 a.m. The infant was making noises after being tucked behind a wall near Hardwick Street and Lakewood Boulevard, authorities said.
The girl was taken to a fire station, and she was transported to Long Beach Memorial Hospital, where she is in stable condition.
The Sheriff’s Department is investigating the case as a child endangerment incident. California has a law permitting newborns as old as 72 hours to be dropped off at a “safe surrender site,” like fire stations and hospitals, with no questions asked, but abandoning a baby elsewhere can lead to a child endangerment charges.
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