A 9-month-old baby has been rescued after she was allegedly abandoned in the middle of the street in upstate New York.
In a heart-wrenching video taken by a bystander, the small baby can be seen crying as she lies in the middle of the road by herself.
Eventually a stranger picks up the distressed baby.
A woman claiming to be the baby’s mother then shows up before the video cuts out.
The Utica Police Department said the baby’s mother, Ledrika E. Ford, 27, has since been arrested and charged with child endangerment.
After the incident, police said they searched for Ford and the child for hours before they were located.
Ford told police that the infant was secured in the back seat of a vehicle they were in and when she looked back a short time later, the child was not there.
She told police she immediately returned to the area from which she’d left and found the 9-month-old.
The baby was later taken to a local hospital. Child Protective Services are now involved in the case, reports said.
Police thanked the bystanders who found the infant and helped keep her safe.
“The Utica Police Department would like to thank the citizens in the video who attended to the child showing their caring and compassionate spirit of the City of Utica,” cops wrote on their Facebook page.
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