A young mother was placed in police custody on Tuesday when she turned up to collect the baby girl she allegedly abandoned at Mount Sinai, New Amsterdam.

Police received information that the baby was left on the road and while they were in the area conducting investigations the mother showed up. After the woman collected her baby she was placed in a police van and taken to the station.

A teenager in whose care the baby was last left was also asked to visit the station to assist with investigations. Stabroek News understands that the mother visited a shop in the area and left the baby with the owner.

She reportedly told the owner that the baby’s grandmother would pick up the baby, but that did not happen.

Reports are that the following day the owner of the shop had to go out and she asked a teenaged neighbour to keep the baby. The teen agreed to care for the baby but soon after passers-by reported seeing the baby on the road and raised an alarm.

However, the teen’s mother said her daughter never left the baby on the road.

She said another teenage girl visited her daughter and took the baby on the road to play with her. The woman said the other girl may have told passers-by that the baby had been abandoned and they in turn raised an alarm.

Meanwhile, the shopkeeper said she did not know much about the baby’s mother but claimed the woman was “always in the habit of leaving the baby with strangers.” According to reports, the woman told the shopkeeper she did not want the baby because she “cannot afford to take care of it.”