A migrant woman who came to the United States from Mexico about ten months ago was arrested in New York City after leaving her newborn baby boy in a bathroom trash can.
The migrant is in the United States seeking asylum.
Lucia Garcia, 21, was covered in blood when she was arrested at Staten Island University Hospital just after 1 a.m. on Saturday.
Police arrived at the hospital lobby after Garcia was spotted by an NYPD officer who was working security.
“The officers and a member of the hospital’s cleaning crew then heard a baby’s cries, and found the infant, who was taken to a Manhattan hospital in stable condition,” the New York Post reports. “The woman’s father, Ambrosio Garcia, 41, said he had brought her to the hospital Friday night because she wasn’t feeling well but that she insisted she wasn’t pregnant and had been hiding her condition from him.”
The woman’s father maintains that she had told him she had her period to explain why she was covered in blood.
“She said she had her period when she came out of the bathroom,” Garcia told the Post through tears. “She had a lot of blood on her.”
“Then police went into the bathroom, and another man to clean it. There was a baby boy in there that they found in the trash can.”
The baby is said to be healthy despite being discarded in a trash can. She was 32 weeks pregnant when he was born.
“Somebody came and told me that the baby was living [last night] and he was well,” the woman’s father said. “That she had put him in the trash. I would love to have a grandchild — it would be my first grandchild.”
Garcia has been charged with endangering the welfare of a child and reckless endangerment.
