CALGARY – He didn’t know it at the time, but when a Calgary man jumped into a trash bin to save a crying abandoned baby, he claims he was looking at his own son.
The man, who cannot be named, said in an interview that he and his girlfriend did not know she was pregnant. When he left for work Tuesday, he said his girlfriend complained she wasn’t feeling well.
While at work he decided to check up on her at their northwest Calgary home.
"I had no reason to want to come home. At around 1 (PM) I got a bad feeling in my gut and I said I’m going to go home for lunch," he told the Calgary Herald.
He parked and was heading inside when a stranger nearby caught his attention.
"A girl said, ‘I think I hear a baby in the dumpster.’ With no knowledge at the time that this is my kid whatsoever, I went running over there, stood beside the dumpster, hear the baby cry," he said.
"I jumped in and removed the stuff. I personally opened the bag…My first sight of my baby was covered in garbage."
The father was taken to police for an interview and the mom was taken to hospital.
It wasn’t until the police interview was over at 9 p.m. that he learned from police he was the boy’s father, he said.
Meanwhile, the 29-year-old mother is scheduled to undergo a psychiatric assessment and is facing charges of attempted murder, failing to provide the necessities of life and child abandonment.
The baby was initially hypothermic and in life-threatening condition, but he’s now stable.
James Patton said he was walking his dog through the complex when the man who now claims to be the baby’s father and woman told him they heard a baby’s cries coming from inside the bin.
"A girl said she heard something, he tore open a garbage bag," Patton said.
They found a naked baby boy with his umbilical cord still attached.
"I ripped off my shirt," said Patton. "I kept the baby warm."
The group called 911 and a police cruiser patrolling nearby arrived within two or three minutes.
"It was incredibly lucky the passersby responded to the cries of the baby," said Staff Sgt. Leah Barber of the child abuse unit.
"I truly believe they saved his life."
Authorities estimated the boy was born between 11 AM and 11:30 AM – about two hours before the rescuers found him.
Police confirmed Wednesday the boy’s mother lives in the same townhouse complex where the infant was found inside a bag thrown into a metal trash bin.
An ambulance took the woman to hospital an hour after the baby was found in the bin. The mother remains in hospital.
"Information suggests the woman was not aware of the pregnancy prior to the birth," Barber said.
The boy’s father, likewise, didn’t know the woman was pregnant until authorities told him, said Barber. He was not present during the birth. Barber described the man’s reaction as "shock, I think."
The woman hasn’t been charged yet, and authorities will likely withhold her name to protect the baby’s identity.
The resident who lives closest to the bin said she didn’t hear anything unusual when she was outside an hour before others found the baby.
"I just thank God for the girl that can hear better than me," Sheila Pierzchala said.
Pierzchala lives close enough to the bin that she said she often tosses her trash into it from her front steps.
"I’m just thankful I didn’t throw my garbage on top of a baby who was right below," Pierzchala said.
She had not noticed any pregnant women living nearby.
"I think it’s so sad. It’s so sad for whoever had to do this, that they were in a situation that they felt they had to do it."
There have been several other high-profile abandoned babies in Canada over the past few years.
A customer at a Walmart in Prince Albert, Sask., found an abandoned newborn in 2007 after spotting a tiny clenched fist sticking out of a toilet. The baby survived. The mother was found not guilty but prosecutors are appealing.
In Toronto, an injured eight-month old child was abandoned in January 2008 in a freezing stairwell. Police said a passerby found the child, who had been left face-down, bleeding from her nose and mouth.
In Quebec City, a 25-year-old woman dumped her newborn baby girl’s body in a trash bin outside of her apartment building in 2008. She pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.
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