LODI, Calif. — Employees of a Lodi business said they are traumatized a day after they found the body of a baby in a parking lot Thursday.
Police are investigating the infant’s death after the baby was found in the area of Tokay and Sacramento streets.
It was like any other Thursday morning for David Franco, who decided to take his lunch from working at the Commissary Azteca in Lodi.
He was sitting by a tree facing a parking lot off Sacramento Street when he spotted the body of a newborn baby lying on the concrete.
"I was finishing up eating and I turned and I saw the baby there and the truth is it scared me,” Franco told ABC10. “I didn't even want to get close to it because it scared me so much."
Franco is a father of three from Mexico and has been living in Lodi for about five months. When he saw the baby, he didn’t know what to do so he ran to his coworker Silvia Gonzalez.
Gonzalez called 911 after seeing the baby in a pool of blood and with the placenta still attached.
“I tried to get close to the baby to see if it was alive,” Gonzalez said. “Because I didn't think twice. I thought if he's still alive I'll take off my shirt and put him on my chest. But after seeing that he didn't move, I didn't want to touch him so I wouldn't have any problems with the police."
Lodi police launched an investigation after first responders pronounced the baby dead.
Gonzalez said she had frequently seen a homeless woman in the area who looked visibly pregnant, but hasn’t seen her anymore.
As a mother of a three-year-old daughter, Gonzalez questions why anyone would want to hurt a child.
“Last year, about a year ago, I lost my baby,” Gonzalez said. “I was seven months pregnant, and the truth is, I cried. I cried because I remembered the moment I lost my baby and I told myself how a mother could do this to their child. It was really hard for me. It affected me a lot."
Gonzalez and Franco hope others in their community will find other options if they find themselves in a difficult situation where they cannot care for their children.
"For them to take them to the hospitals instead so that the government can receive them and take care of them,” Franco said. “But for people to please not do this because this is too sad."
They're pleading with the mother and the public to come forward if they know what happened so there’s justice for the baby.
“He was a boy. I saw and he was a boy,” Gonzalez said. “And more than anything to seek justice for the angel who wasn't at fault for any of this."
ABC10 reached out to organizations that help mothers in the area. and one of the organizations that responded was Lodi House. The organization said its unique shelter program helps single mothers access therapy and affordable housing and its services are free.
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