A newborn baby was rescued in Kahala, Hawaii, after being dumped in a garbage can. A good Samaritan (who has asked to remain anonymous) was home alone when he heard a woman screaming outside at 11:30 pm. “Then I got up and looked out the window. And then I was shocked to see what I was seeing at first. Right over there, across the street, I witnessed a homeless lady giving birth to a child, so I immediately picked up my phone and called 911,” he told a local news station. He then watched as the woman proceeded to walk across the street and place her newborn baby in a trash can. She then walked off. “Disbelief, really. Just in the moment I was in shock a little bit. Really no words,” he said, describing his feelings at the time. 

The man immediately pulled the baby from the can. “I was able to just grab it out of the top of the trash, and it didn’t look like it was really injured or anything. It was crying when I took it out of the dumpster, which is a good sign,” he said. The situation was so emotional that he described breaking down and holding onto the baby as he waited for ambulances to arrive. “I didn’t know how someone could just leave their kid like that,” he said. Fortunately, ambulances arrived to take the baby to Kapiolani Medical Center. The baby has been listed in stable condition according to the man. “I’m grateful to God that I was here home when this all happened so that I was able to get the kid in time to save its life. It could have turned out very different if I didn’t hear the screams and I wasn’t home,” he said. Another resident in the area, Christen Tominaga, called the situation “heartbreaking.” “Hearing about it, it’s heartbreaking really just knowing that, you know, that’s a helpless little one,” she said. She added that she was glad that the baby had been rescued and was hopeful it was receiving proper care and love. 

Kahala is on the island of O’ahu, which has seen a 2% increase in homelessness. Housing in Hawaii is scarce and expensive. Hawaii also does not have a centralized system for getting people into shelters, meaning that a person seeking a homeless shelter would have to call each individual shelter to find out if there are beds available. Other states have created a single hotline that can connect a person to any shelter. As for the baby’s mother, she has not been found. Hawaii has had Safe Haven laws since 2007, allowing a mother to bring a baby less than 72 hours old to a designated Safe Haven such as a hospital or police department with no questions asked. According to authorities, a child abandonment case has been opened.