Two-year-old abandoned at Goodwill with note and bag of clothes, Mississippi cops say
A 2-year-old child was found abandoned at a Mississippi Goodwill on Monday, according to police.
He can’t give his name — he may be too young to know it or speak it — or the names of his parents and any relatives, Southaven Police Department said in a Facebook post. All he had was a note, and a plastic bag carrying a change of clothes.
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A man and a woman were seen with the child just before he was left at the Goodwill drop-off location around 9:40 a.m., surveillance cameras show.
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Footage shows the pair was driving a red SUV with damage to the rear passenger side door.
A man wearing a hat, mask and dark pants and sweater could be seen holding the child’s hand, walking him to the spot where he was left.
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The man then left the area on foot, Southaven PD said.
In an update shortly after 5:30 p.m. Monday, police said a suspect was arrested in Memphis, Tennessee, at 3:30 p.m. But no charges were given, and the investigation is ongoing.
“We would like to thank all of the citizens who showed concern for the child, rest assured he is well, and being taken care of and will be re-united with family when (Child Protective Services) determines this is proper,” Police Chief Macon Moore said in the post.
A woman claiming to be the boy’s mother told WREG she did not abandon her son and that he was taken from her after she met up with a “male acquaintance” in Nashville over the weekend. The TV station reported the woman left the child with a person she believed to be the acquaintance’s sister, only to later discover it was his girlfriend. She said the acquaintance then tried to prostitute her, but she refused.
“If I knew that I said I wouldn’t have left my baby like that. Ain’t no way I would have left my baby. That’s all I got with me,” she told WREG.
Southaven police told WMC the child’s mother might not have known the man seen in the surveillance footage had her son.
This story was originally published December 14, 2020 at 2:56 PM with the headline "Two-year-old abandoned at Goodwill with note and bag of clothes, Mississippi cops say."