MIAMI — A woman who told authorities she left her toddler with a stranger at a Miami hospital to keep her off the streets has been arrested on a child abandonment charge, police said Wednesday,
The 33-year-old woman asked a man to watch the girl while she went to a restroom, and never came back. The man — who happened to be an off-duty Miami police officer — called for help, police said.
“She hands off the child to this unknown man,” police spokeswoman Kaina Fallat told news outlets. “Luckily he was a police officer and what was going through his mind was he went into police mode.”
Carolina Vizcarra was booked into jail on Wednesday after telling investigators “It’s not like I just left her,” according to an arrest report. “It’s a hospital and I was worried for her. I was thinking about sleeping on the streets, but not her.”