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NYPD: Mom abandoned baby in subway, good samaritan reported to police

Authorities were notified of the woman's whereabouts by someone who recognized her from photos and video police released showing a woman pushing the child through a subway turnstile.

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NYPD/AP
A woman (top r.) pushes her baby girl in a stroller at the Columbus Circle subway station in New York, in this image from surveillance video. The 20-year-old woman, who is suspected of abandoning the baby at the Manhattan station, was in police custody on Tuesday.
  • By Reuters / Associated Press

A mother accused of abandoning her baby by pushing its stroller onto the platform in a New York City subway station before hopping on a departing train was in custody on Tuesday, police said.

The 20-year-old woman is suspected of leaving the 10-month-old child when a train arrived at the Columbus Circle train station on Monday, police said. City officials were looking after the child, who appeared to be unharmed.

"She was on the train," said New York City Police Department spokesman Christopher Pisano. "She exited and left the stroller on the platform and then got back onto the train."

The woman was taken into custody just after midnight local time in the area of 72nd Street and Broadway in Manhattan, Pisano said. No charges had yet been filed. The investigation is still underway.

The woman pushed the baby's stroller onto the platform from a northbound No. 1 train when it arrived at the Columbus Circle station and then got back onto the train, police said.

A passenger observed the woman and child board the train at 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue, police said. The passenger got off at Columbus Circle and noticed the unattended stroller on the platform and the mother inside the train. After the train pulled away, the passenger remained with the baby for about 20 minutes. When the mother did not return, she notified a subway worker who called police.

Authorities described the baby as 6 to 7 months old. She was examined at Roosevelt Hospital, and no apparent signs of trauma were found.

The baby was placed in the care of the city's Administration for Children's Services.

A city law that allows people to take an unwanted baby to a firehouse, police station or hospital with no questions asked would not have applied in this case because it only pertains to infants 5 days old or younger.

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