Nicole Ndumbi. Photo courtesy of Coppell Police Department
A Lake Highlands woman was arrested Friday and charged with abandoning her newborn outside a Coppell church, WFAA reports. The delivery drivers who found the baby outdoors in chilly weather are being hailed as heroes.
Coppell police say the saga began Thursday about 2 p.m. when two delivery drivers happened upon a car seat under a tree outside Coppell Bible Fellowship Church. Inside they found a baby boy, wrapped in a blanket.
The drivers called 911, and the baby was taken to the hospital, where he was found to be in good health. He was placed with Child Protective Services.
Police praised the quick-thinking drivers, who halted their Christmas season deliveries to investigate. Their actions “likely resulted in the infant surviving,” the police said, since temperatures were in the 40s.
Police reviewed church surveillance video, which captured a woman in a green SUV leaving the car seat near the tree. The vehicle was registered to Nicole Ndumbi, which matched the name on the medical bracelet the baby was wearing when left at the church.
When they tracked her down in the 9700 block of Forest Lane near Audelia, Ndumbi told police she left her baby at the church believing they would help.
“I made a big mistake,” the mother told police. “No one would help me.”
Ndumbi was transported to the Carrollton jail and charged with abandoning/endangering a child, a second-degree felony.
According to the Safe Haven Law, also known as the Baby Moses Law, mothers who feel they are unable to care for their newborn may bring their baby, no questions asked, to any hospital, fire station or emergency medical services (EMS) station in Texas. The baby must be 60 days old or younger and unharmed, and the mother must give the child to an employee, not a bystander.
