Man tossing garbage heard a cry and thought it was a toy—but when the trash bag moved, he realized he had to act fast
We shouldn’t ignore the little voice that urges us to do good or points out that something doesn’t feel right. A maintenance worker, Corey Davis, listened to this voice and made a life-changing difference, WRBL 3 reported. The man casually went to throw garbage in one of the dumpsters at Budgetel Inn and Suites on Victory Drive, Columbus, when he heard a sudden sound and was caught off guard. Initially, he thought it was a toy or a similar object. However, he felt the urge to check in and take a closer look. When he saw the trash bag moving, he immediately jumped into action.
Davis noted how a series of coincidences came together to get him to that spot at that very moment. Starting with his arrival at work at a different time than usual, Davis went about his chores. He casually decided to go to the dumpster before he could leave to throw some waste and that’s when he heard the noise. At first, he believed it was a toy but he was pushed to question the sound. “I heard a cry, there was something in my heart telling me, ‘It’s a shame if you can’t turn around and just go check to be sure,’” the man recalled.
He took help from people around and decided to dive into the garbage and check. There he found a trash bag from where the noise was coming and to his surprise, it was moving. Convinced that something was terribly wrong, he acted. “It was scary, and the first thing I did was just rip the bag open and it was a baby,” the worker remarked. He was astonished and worried but when the infant cried aloud, he knew he was okay and immediately called for help. “A baby had no business in a trash can. That’s what hurt me the most—seeing a newborn at the bottom of a trash can. I have kids myself, I can’t imagine anyone experiencing that,” he said.
The officers arrived and transported the baby for treatment. They carried out an investigation and found 22-year-old Zinnia Hernandez to be the mother of the newborn. She had reportedly given birth in a bathtub at the hotel and then left the baby in the dumpster. Since then, she has been charged with criminal attempted murder, abandonment of a child, cruelty to children in the first degree and reckless conduct. Her bond is set at $20,000. Davis and the authorities were distraught to learn that babies were left in such inhuman conditions by helpless parents.
The Georgia Safe Place for Newborns Act, also known as the Safe Haven Law, is a provision for mothers to legally surrender babies up to 30 days old at hospitals, police stations, or fire stations without facing charges. Chief Deputy Daniel Macon with Columbus Fire & EMS advocated for the law and for parents in need, in order to serve the best interests of the child. “It’s completely anonymous. You drop them off, we ask no questions. And we make sure the baby is taken care of instead of some of the alternative issues that we’re seeing today,” he explained. Davis, too, commended the act and said, “Anything is better than a trash can.”