Mom shops while baby's locked in car

Friday, March 27, 2009
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A Jersey City woman who left her 3-month-old child covered in blankets in a locked parked car was taken into custody Wednesday and could face immigration problems, officials said.

Aminata Sano, 34, of Forrest Street and Ocean Avenue, was arrested at 12:02 p.m. after police got a call saying the baby girl was inside the 1998 Infiniti at Highland and Bergen avenues, reports said. She is charged with child abuse, a crime that holds up to 18 months in jail if convicted.

When police arrived they found the car locked and a child's car seat in the back seat covered with blankets, reports said.

Police called their Emergency Services Unit to break into the vehicle, but before they could, Sano ran to the car, reports said, adding that it was 10 minutes after the abandoned child was reported to police.

Sano unlocked the car and removed the blankets to reveal the baby who was born on Dec. 2., reports said.

"I was in the store. I was only gone for two minutes," she told police. "I didn't want to wake up the baby because she wasn't feeling well," reports said.

The mother was arrested and police found the child was not properly secured in the car seat and the seat was not properly secured in the back seat of the car, reports said.

Police notified Immigration and Customs Enforcement when Sano could not produce paperwork proving she was in the country legally, reports said.

After interviewing Sano, state Division of Youth and Family Services officials placed the child in foster care for the time being, reports said.

Sano made her first appearance on the charges yesterday afternoon in Central Judicial Processing Court in Jersey City via video link from Hudson County jail in Kearny.

Her bail was to be set later in Superior Court due to the seriousness of the charge, court officials said.