A newborn was abandoned in a cardboard box at an intersection in Fairbanks on Friday afternoon, according to a report from Alaska State Troopers.
Troopers say they got a report at about 2 p.m. that the child was left near Chena Marina.
When they found the child, who seemed to have been abandoned recently, they also found a note “indicating the parent could not take care [of] it,” the report said.
Troopers say the child was taken to a local hospital, where they were found to be in good health. Fairbanks Memorial staff would not answer questions about the child’s condition.
Troopers are still investigating the incident and have not yet responded to questions about the infant and the circumstances in which it was found.
The temperature in the area was about 1 degree at the time, according to the National Weather Service.
A Fairbanks woman named Roxy Lane posted on social media Friday night that she found the newborn near a row of mailboxes by her house.
In a video she posted, Lane shows a baby wrapped in a thick blanket and the note that says his name is Teshawn.
According to the note, the baby was born at 6 a.m. on Friday and may be several weeks premature. The person who left him wrote, “My parents and grandparents don’t have food or money to raise me.”
The note also says that the family who left Teshawn behind lives nearby.
Alaska does have laws in place for people who want to voluntarily surrender a child, but it has to happen under specific circumstances. The infant has to be younger than 21 days old and must be left with an emergency official, someone who has medical training or anyone the parent believes would keep the infant safe.
Lane said Saturday that the parents may not have been aware of those safe haven laws or that they can call child protective services and surrender their baby without penalization.
“Honestly this kind of stuff happens more often than you would think,” Lane wrote. “Somewhere along the line we’ve all failed this family…Everyone should have access to basic necessities and shouldn’t feel like they have to abandon their babies for it to have a better life.”
Lane said that she has cycled through a lot of emotions – shock, anger and sadness – and is comforting herself by making wishes for his future.
“He has endless possibilities in front of him, and who knows maybe he can be reunited with his mother if she needs help and gets that help,” she wrote.
In her post, Lane asked that anyone who knows Teshawn’s mother check on her.
“She might be in a desperate situation, feeling abandoned herself,” Lane wrote. “Clearly someone in our community felt so lost and hopeless that they made probably the hardest choice of their lives to leave that innocent life on the side of the road with nothing but some blankets and a name.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story gave the wrong day of the week for the incident. It was Friday, not Saturday.
