14-Year-Old Leaves Newborn Baby With Customer at Jersey City Restaurant

A teen girl left her newborn baby in the arms of a customer at a Jersey City restaurant and fled on May 19.

Walter A Cocca livestreamed this footage from El Patron, a restaurant in the city’s Greenville neighborhood, showing his girlfriend, Alease Scott, holding the baby girl, who was wrapped in brown cloth.

Cocca can be heard in the video explaining, in disbelief, what happened.

“I’m at my neighborhood restaurant with my special friend and a lady comes in and hands her a baby, apparently a newborn, and runs out,” Cocca says in the video.

According to local reports, the mother was a 14-year-old girl who walked up to the counter at the restaurant saying she found the infant.

In a follow-up video from the couple, Scott, who is trained in first aid and CPR, said she asked if she could check the baby’s vitals and noticed the baby needed oxygen. Scott said they needed to call 911, and the mother walked out of the restaurant, leaving the newborn with her.

First responders quickly showed up and began to question the couple about the mother’s whereabouts. They also gave Scott oxygen to administer to the infant, who began to cry shortly thereafter.

According to local reports, the teen mother was found, and Cocca posted a screenshot with an update from Jersey City Detective Joe Chidichimo, informing them that the baby is “perfectly healthy” and the mother is doing well too. Cocca told Storyful he and his girlfriend offered to be the baby’s godparents and would love to see the baby again.

The baby girl will be put up for adoption, and at this point, the 14-year-old is not facing charges, according to local reports.

Storyful reached out to the Jersey City PD but did not receive a response at the time of publishing. Credit: Walter A Cocca via Storyful