A Brandon, Man. man says he still can’t believe he found a toddler in a stroller abandoned on a sidewalk last week.
Ryan Hicks told CTV Winnipeg that when he heard a baby crying just before 6:30 a.m. last Thursday morning, he assumed the baby was being cared for.
But when the tot continued to cry, he looked out his window and saw a stroller on the sidewalk, with no one around.
“It was really shock and disbelief that I had found a child alone,” Hicks said.
He headed outside, noticed that the stroller had a purse hanging from it, and expected a caregiver to appear, but was puzzled when no one did.
“At worst -- and it’s still not a good thing to do -- but I thought maybe someone had left her there just to run into a house and get something,” he said.
Hicks, a grandfather himself, went and comforted the girl, who soon stopped crying. He has no idea how long the child had been there before he found her but he says she appeared warm, with a jacket and blanket, but still looked scared.
“You could kind of see the worry in her eyes, because we were strangers,” he said.
Hicks went to the neighbours to see if they knew anything about the child. But with no information or parent coming forward, he decided to call police, who arrived quickly.
Police found two pieces of identification in the stroller, and believe one of them belongs to the child's mother.
The Brandon Police Service says the child’s mother did not report the toddler missing until later that afternoon.
The child was immediately turned over to Child and Family Services and police say she will remain under care pending their investigation. It’s expected the mother will face charges.
Hicks said he has many questions, but he hopes the child and the mother receive help.
“She’s obviously in a bad place if she could let this happen, so she needs help,” he said.
With a report from CTV Winnipeg’s Sarah Plowman
