2-Year-Old Boy Abandoned At Mississippi Goodwill Store With Extra Clothes, Note; Suspect Arrested

Authorities in Mississippi have arrested a suspect who allegedly abandoned a 2-year-old child at a Goodwill store in Mississippi with a plastic bag containing extra clothes, some food and a note.

Officials with the Southaven Police Department received a call about the child who was abandoned at the Goodwill Industries 57 Stateline Road at around 9.50 a.m. Monday. Authorities took the abandoned child back with them to the department where he was turned over to Child Protective Services, the department said in a Facebook post that accompanied the pictures of the child.

"The male child is approximately 2 years old and is unable to give his name or the names of his parents or relatives," police said in the post.

Footage from a nearby surveillance camera showed that two suspects, a male and a female, were involved in the incident. The male suspect was described as a light-skinned Black male wearing black jogging pants and a black cowboy hat.

The department, along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Shelby County Sheriff's Department launched a probe and located the suspect at Memphis, Tennessee about 5 hours later, police said in a follow-up post. Cops didn't release any further information about the suspect and the charges they are likely to face.

"Southaven Police received numerous tips, and with the assistance of F.B.I. offices in both Mississippi, and Tennessee, along with the Shelby County Sheriff's Department a suspect related to this case was taken into custody in Memphis," the department said.

An employee at the Goodwill store told WREG-TV that the man had walked up to him and said that "the child's mother couldn't care for him" before walking away.

According to the outlet, the note that came along with the child read: "child abandoned… no phone number for mom."

The employee told the station that the child wasn't dressed properly to suit the chilly wintry weather in the morning but he was in good spirits. The child was laughing, playing with toys and eating food until police arrived at the scene. When asked how old he was, he would stick out two fingers in response.