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A swaddled baby with her umbilical cord attached was left on a porch in Pennsylvania

Posted at 12:53 AM, Aug 01, 2019
and last updated 2019-08-01 03:52:07-04

A baby girl swaddled in a blanket with her umbilical cord still attached was left on a porch in Pennsylvania — and police are looking for her parents.

Terrell Phillips said he found the baby Tuesday afternoon outside a home in Upper Darby and called the police. Temperatures were in the mid-90s in the area that day.

“I picked it up and as I picked it up the towel was unraveling and I saw the baby still had the umbilical cord on it,” Phillips told CNN affiliate WPVI. Upper Darby Police are looking for the baby’s family.

“This adorable hours old newborn was left abandoned, alone … we need help locating the parents to get them the assistance that they need,” Upper Darby Police tweeted. “Mom, if you’re reading this, call us.”

The baby is doing well after undergoing evaluations at a local hospital, police said. Authorities said they have received an influx of adoption requests for the baby, but said they are not involved in that process and asked callers to only reach out with information on how the baby’s family can be identified.

“The Newborn Protection Act (Safe Haven) states that a parent of a newborn may leave a child in the care of a hospital or a police officer at a police station without being criminally liable, as long as the child is no older than 28 days and is not harmed,” police said.

This is the fourth newborn found abandoned in recentweeks. In June, police in Georgia found a newborn wrapped in a plastic bag in a wooded area in Cumming. The baby girl was found by residents of a nearby home who were unloading their car after a trip and heard a noise coming from a secluded strip of land.

Meantime, police in California, are investigating after two newborns — one of whom died — were found Tuesday behind a business. Fairfield police found them after responding to a call about babies who looked like they had been “birthed on the sidewalk.”