The Tribune

AN 18-year-old who thought he heard a baby crying as he stepped outside his home triggered the rescue of a five-day-old newborn found inside the locked trunk of a vehicle in Pinewood Gardens, a discovery that led to the arrest of the child’s parents on charges related to child cruelty.

Shavallo Pinder was leaving his home on his way to meet his cousins when the sound caught his attention near Sequoia Street. As he moved closer to a parked vehicle, he began searching the area, trying to pinpoint where the crying was coming from.

“I start to look by the bush, then I start to look by the window. I gone closer to the car. I was looking inside the car,” he told ZNS.

Mr Pinder said the sound grew louder as he approached the vehicle, prompting him to place his ear near the trunk.

“I put my ears closer to the trunk because the sound got louder,” he said.

He said he banged on the trunk, which caused the baby to cry again. Unable to open it, he jumped over a wall to alert his cousin and another person who was sitting outside. When they still could not gain access to the trunk, police were called.

Police said officers responded shortly after 11.30pm on December 27 to a report of a baby crying inside the trunk of a vehicle on Sequoia Street in Pinewood Gardens. On arrival, officers located a locked blue Hyundai Elantra with the sound of an infant coming from inside.

Unable to access the vehicle, police broke a window to gain entry and discovered a male newborn wrapped in a blanket and placed inside a box in the trunk. Emergency Medical Services transported the infant to the hospital, where medical personnel later assessed the baby to be five days old. The child was listed in stable condition and admitted to the Children’s Ward Nursery for ongoing care.

“We see the baby inside this box with no shirt on, no pants, no socks, no tam, it was wrapped up in a blue blanket. It didn’t feel real to me because I never saw nothing like that before,” Mr Pinder said.

Police said a 38-year-old woman and a 42-year-old man, identified as the infant’s parents, were arrested and cautioned in connection with the offence of child cruelty. A six-year-old and a one-year-old found at the residence were placed into the care of their uncle for welfare reasons, while the infant’s mother was taken to the hospital by EMS for medical evaluation.

ZNS suggested that the police account of the incident was issued only days later in response to repeated inquiries by the organisation.