It was a typical afternoon in an Argentinian neighborhood when a passerby heard a baby crying. Not knowing where the sound came from, she and the others began searching the area. The sobs emanated from a shopping bag underneath a vehicle, to everyone’s astonishment.
One Saturday afternoon in September 2022, an unlikely incident occurred in the Olimpo neighborhood in the Buenos Aires town of Lomas de Zamora, Argentina. A young woman, Belén Gutiérrez, was walking through the streets near a church when something caught her attention.
Gutiérrez said she was headed to a fair in the neighborhood at the time, which was held every Saturday. It turned out to be a loud sound, and many people passing by stopped to find out where it came from. After some time, Gutiérrez deciphered the sound as an infant’s cry.
Soon afterward, Gutiérrez and several others began searching the area, trying to track down the source of the sound. Finally, they stumbled upon a clothing bag hidden under a parked car in front of the church. Gutiérrez knew she had to do something when nobody dared to inspect the bag.
She was still weighing how to provide him care and support when she stumbled upon a piece of paper in the bag.
The young woman took the bag from underneath the vehicle and mustered the courage to look inside. Something tugged at her heartstrings as she found a baby inside the shopping bag as it continued to sob.
But as soon as Gutiérrez took the baby in her warm embrace, he stopped crying and became comfortable. None of the passersby or community folks knew where the infant came from and wondered why someone would leave him under the car.
Indeed, the little one being abandoned on the roadside raised several question marks that nobody had answers to. Although the baby appeared to be looking fine, Gutiérrez worried for his health and wished for him to be examined by a doctor.
Gutiérrez thought it best to stay with the baby to prevent him from going into distress. She was still weighing how to provide him care and support when she stumbled upon a piece of paper in the clothing bag.
When she opened it, she was flabbergasted to discover it was a handwritten note. Hoping it would help shed some light on the little angel being left on the road, Gutiérrez quickly opened the letter and began reading it.
Per the note, the baby’s name was Jesus, and he lost his mother in childbirth. Tragically, the baby’s father turned his back on him afterward, and he had nowhere to go and nobody to take him in. Whoever had written the letter urged that the infant be protected and cared for, stating:
“Please take good care of him, I’m from the street and I have nothing for him. I don’t want him to go hungry like me, or cold. He was born on September 8 at 4.30 am. Take good care of him, please.”
Deeply moved by the baby boy’s dismal conditions, Gutiérrez took the baby to her friend, Antonela Sambran’s place, so he wouldn’t feel cold in the open. As a young mom to a one-year-old kid, she breastfed little Jesus, ensuring he didn’t starve until the cops arrived.
Meanwhile, several people from the neighborhood came together and donated warm clothing and blankets for the newborn. Together, the two kind-hearted women tended to the infant boy, feeling for him and everything he had experienced so early in life.
Once the local police officers arrived on the scene, they took the baby to a nearby hospital, where doctors monitored his health and checked his vitals.
Fortunately, baby Jesus appeared healthy and was transferred to the Neonatology unit. While he remained in the hospital, the doctors discovered that he was almost ten days old and confirmed nobody had come to claim him.
Sambran shared a heart-touching post regarding little Jesus on her Facebook page, urging people to support him through donations.
While the incident was gut-wrenching and heartbreaking, the two Argentinian women stepping up to care for Jesus proved one thing—random acts of kindness cost nothing! We hope no child has to go through such a devastating state of events and that every little one grows up feeling loved and protected!
Click here to read another story about a woman who noticed a “kitten” abandoned in a blanket under the stairs and realized it was a baby girl.