Dead baby found in dumpster outside Hollywood apartment building
FORT LAUDERDALE - A shocking find in Hollywood early Monday morning.
The body of a baby was found by a construction worker in a dumpster outside an apartment building at 1741 Rodman Street, according to police who said they received a 911 call about it around 8 a.m.
Construction worker David Vasquez found the child.
"I smelled a bad odor," he said.
When he looked around he saw a blue grocery bag.
"I went to open the bag. When I opened the bag, I saw the baby and it was already lifeless because I noticed a bad odor," said Vasquez.
Vasquez said the infant looked like a newborn baby and believes the bag was placed in the dumpster over the weekend.
"It's just gut-wrenching and I've been here for 40 years. I never, never ever, we've never had things like this. I'm just like, I don't know, it's shocking, it's disgusting," said area resident Eugene Yakymiw.
"It's unbelievable. It's like if people don't want a baby they could have gave it up to the firemen or leave it at a hospital," said Roger Cote, who lives in the area.
He said the dumpster had been there a few weeks.
"They change it once in a while. I've been here for 12 years and it's the first time I've heard of something like this," said Cote, adding that it upset him when heard what had happened.
"It definitely hurts. (Some) people try to make babies but they can't make babies, they can't conceive. They could have placed it up for adoption," he said.
"It's sad. I'm a therapist and, you know, you think about what someone had to go through to get to that point and what happened," said Jessica Gort, who lives close by. "I wonder how this might correlate with the way the abortion laws have come about. Are we going to see more things like this? Are there girls who are terrified, not knowing what to do?"
Florida state law, supported and promoted by the Miami-based A Safe Haven, allows parents to surrender newborns to firefighters and hospital workers without giving their names.