Dad Thought Sounds Were an Animal. His Kids Said a Baby

The kids were right: Family finds newborn girl in plastic bag near their Georgia home
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 11, 2019 8:41 AM CDT
A Cry in the Woods, Then 'Divine Intervention'
This photo released by the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office shows a newborn baby girl found alive in a plastic bag in a wooded area in Cumming, Ga., on Thursday.   (Forsyth County Sheriff's Office via AP)

A Georgia dad and his kids made a startling find near their Forsyth County home last week: a newborn crammed into a plastic grocery bag, crying but alive. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports authorities are now searching for the mother of the little girl—named India by hospital staff—after Alan Ragatz (spelled Ragetz in some outlets) was approached by his three teen daughters Thursday night, who insisted they heard crying that sounded like a baby coming from the woods near their home in Cumming. "I said, 'That's got to be impossible. It's a baby raccoon, deer or something,'" Ragatz tells WSB-TV. The family members grabbed flashlights, however, and followed the sounds to a pile of leaves and sticks, where they discovered a "poor little baby wrapped in a plastic bag," not more than a few hours old and with her umbilical cord still attached, per Ragatz.

The family called 911; sheriff's deputies administered first aid to the baby at the scene, then hurried her to the hospital. "It was divine intervention we found this child," Forsyth County Sheriff Ron Freeman told reporters at a Friday presser. He noted that whoever left the baby in the woods didn't have to do so: Georgia has a so-called "safe haven" law that allows people to leave babies at designated drop-off sites without fear of prosecution for up to 30 days after a child's birth, per ABC News. Baby India was said to be in stable condition at the hospital as of Friday morning. WXIA reports that as soon as she can leave the hospital, she'll likely be placed with a foster family until she's adopted. Meanwhile, the sheriff's office wants anyone who might have information on India's mother, believed to be white or Hispanic, to contact them. (More abandoned baby stories.)

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