Police in Texas are investigating how a baby ended up in a dumpster behind a mall salad bar where the mother works.
Police and firefighters attended the scene in Hurst when a woman called for emergency medical help at a Souper Salad at the same time a newborn was found in the dumpster behind the chain.
Someone had called police saying they saw a woman carrying something to a dumpster and her behaviour seemed suspicious.
Mall worker Jen Jones shudders to think what might have happened if the baby hadn't been found when it was.
"The dumpster gets emptied by the trash truck so it gets dumped. That baby would be crushed.
"To hear that somebody chose to put their baby, their newborn baby in a dumpster rather than choosing to make the choice for a safe place or to tell a co-worker, it's hard to hear because that's a human life."
In Texas, the Safe Haven law legally allows parents to leave their infant at a hospital or fire station, no questions asked. The closest fire station to the Souper Salad was less than 1.5km away.
Lynn Pearsons, an educator who's worked with pregnant teens before, says there is always more to the story.
"Did they not know, or was there lack of information or were there other personal things that people didn't know were happening that caused that person to make such a terrible decision?"
Police have not released the age of the mother, who was taken to hospital with the newborn.
CBS / Newshub.
