Dead infant found in thrift store donations
Saturday, March 26, 2005
CAROL ROBINSON
News staff writer
Teary-eyed workers at America's Thrift Store assembled in the store's back-room chapel Friday for an impromptu prayer service.
The gathering had nothing to do with Good Friday, but instead a horrendous discovery inside the store moments earlier.
Employees sorting through boxes and bags of donated items found a dead newborn baby face down in a cardboard box.
Tammy Gardner, a book pricer at the store who holds twice-weekly prayer services and Bible studies for employees, immediately prayed with her co-workers on their donated pews.
"I just told them it's a terrible, awful thing but we don't have to worry about the baby anymore, (she's) in the hands of the Lord. She'll never feel pain or hurt or fear," Gardner said. "What else could I say?
"We prayed for justice. God says vengeance is His and He will repay."
The baby girl was found dead just before 10 a.m. inside America's Thrift Store on Huffman Road. The store, which serves King's Ranch and Hannah Homes, receives donations through residential pickup, drop boxes and donation trailers.
Sorting the items:
Each morning, workers unload donated items brought in by the trucks, and take them to a sorting area in the rear of the store. They dump out the contents of boxes and bags onto tables, and decide what will be kept, priced and sold, or tossed.
On Friday, an employee was preparing to do just that when he unloaded an odd-shaped box and spotted the baby inside. He called for a supervisor.
"Needless to say, my workers are upset," said Tim Alvis, vice president of operations.
With hundreds of donation pickups everyday, workers said they've seen a little bit of everything - dead animals and pieces of meat- but nothing close to Friday's discovery.
The store was crowded with shoppers, but none were aware of the goings-in the back room, where police cordoned off the sorting area.
The baby appeared to be full-term and there were no signs of obvious trauma or injury, police said.
An autopsy will be performed, but authorities said there was no way to immediately tell whether the baby was stillborn or alive when discarded in the box.
A 2000 Alabama law, the Safe Haven law, allows parents to leave unwanted infants in any hospital with an emergency department. Parents face no criminal charges if the baby is abandoned at the hospital within 72 hours of birth.
Michael Jones, the store's business manager, said that's what makes Friday's incident so senseless.
"I don't understand," he said. "It's beyond comprehension."
Birmingham investigators were interviewing truck drivers and obtained a list of all residential pickups from Thursday. Homicide Lt. Herman Hinton said they will track those pickups to see if they can determine where the box originated.
"It may be more complicated than I'd like it to be," Hinton said, "but it's a starting point."
Hinton asked that the public to be on the lookout for someone who was pregnant, isn't any longer and doesn't have a baby.
