ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – A newborn baby was surrendered to a St. Johns County fire station on Friday, according to the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office.
Initially, the St. Johns County Fire Rescue Department said a woman reported that she found the newborn inside a box on the side of the road, but the SJSO said the investigation led them to discover that the mother of the child surrendered the baby to Fire Station 17 on County Road 210 in “good health and in accordance with the law.”
The sheriff’s office said there is no evidence of a crime.
“This incident attracted a lot of attention as the initial information indicated the baby may have been abandoned at a separate location along a roadway,” SJSO said in an update on Facebook.
The sheriff’s office said it would not provide any further details into the investigation.
Firefighters took the baby to Wolfson Children’s Emergency Room on Old St. Augustine Road for evaluation.
According to the fire department, the doctor said the baby is estimated to be a few days old.
At the time of the initial report, News4JAX spoke to the public information officer for SJFR who said he hadn’t seen anything like the original reported incident.
“I think it was kind of a shock. This is the first time we’ve ever seen something like that happen so it’s kind of one of these you come out and you’re like we found a baby so they were kind of shocked, but we know a lot of our guys our parents so we go into parent mode and just take care of the kid,” Chris Naff said.
The SJSO opened an investigation after the initial report that the baby was left on the side of the road.
Naff said firehouses and hospitals are safe haven locations.
MORE | Safe Haven for Newborns reaches milestone of 402 babies saved in Florida since its opening | Safe Haven law expansion goes into effect in Florida
Babies can be dropped off within 30 days with no questions asked and no legal consequences.
