KEY POINTS

  • A man walking his dog alerted cops after hearing the baby's cries
  • A police officer pulled the newborn out of the bush
  • The baby is being treated at a local hospital

A newborn baby with her umbilical cord still attached was found abandoned in a wooded area in Maryland on Wednesday morning.

A man walking his dog on a bike path in Glen Burnie spotted the baby girl and alerted cops.

"I was watering my flowers and there was a gentleman there trying to get my attention, said there's a baby in the woods and I'm like, 'a human baby?' and he said yeah," said a local resident, identified only as Steve, CBS Local reported.

"It looked like someone had just come along and chucked it in the woods," Steve said.

Ted Rutherford, who first heard the cries of the infant, said he called 911 immediately after finding the newborn in the wooded area.

"The placenta and all the, you know, the fluids and all were in like a grocery bag, A little plastic bag and it was tied up around the umbilical cord," Rutherford said, ABC's WMAR News reported. "The baby would cry, cry, cry and then it would stop."

A police officer arrived at the spot and pulled the newborn out of the bush.

"He was able to pull some sticks out and get the baby out and it was still attached to its umbilical cord," Steve said.

The baby girl suffered minor injuries and was taken to a local hospital.

"Thankfully the child is still alive. It was suffering from some injuries due to being in contact with the brush, some bushes, scrapes, abrasions, that sort of thing," said Marc Limansky, a spokesperson for Anne Arundel County Police, adding that an investigation was going on to find out who abandoned the newborn baby.

"This investigation will now continue as to determining who committed this act and hopefully we will be able to bring some closure to it," Limansky said.

newborn
Representational image. Getty Images/Christopher Furlong

Last year, a 1-day-old girl was found abandoned in a trash bag outside an apartment complex in Las Vegas. A family residing in the complex heard the baby's cries and found her inside the bag in the bushes. The umbilical cord was still attached to the baby when she was found.

The newborn baby was taken to a hospital. She was in a stable condition at the time.