LIVINGSTON, Texas — A baby girl is recovering in a Houston-area hospital and her father is facing abandonment charges after a Texas couple found the injured infant alone in a shed near Livingston.
Preliminary findings indicate the child may have been left in the shed after a vehicle crash, police confirmed to KTRK-TV.
According to KHOU-TV, Katherine and John McClain awoke Saturday morning when they heard what a security camera revealed to be a “mostly naked” man checking their vehicle doors before stealing a neighbor’s truck. The couple alerted their neighbor, who reported the vehicle stolen, but the camera footage also showed their dog, Archie, barking at something inside their backyard shed, prompting them to investigate.
“I turned around and told my wife, ‘Call 911. There’s a baby in there,’” John McClain told KTRK.
Katherine McClain told the TV station that they found the child lying on her stomach between a file cabinet and a motorcycle. After receiving permission from 911 dispatchers to pick up the child, the McClains noticed that the girl was bruised around her face and body.
“I’m a mom,” Katharine McClain told KHOU, adding, “I was pretty frantic and just shocked. It’s still kind of got me a little bit.”
Police confirmed to the TV station that the stolen truck was found a short while later with the child’s father behind the wheel. He faces multiple charges, including abandoning or endangering a child, according to Polk County Jail records.
The child’s condition was not known Monday morning, but KTRK reported that she was airlifted to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston with a broken leg that had to be pinned during surgery.
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