Woman Tries to Reclaim Baby

A woman who said she was the mother of an infant found abandoned in Pacoima tried unsuccessfully to reclaim the baby hours later, police said Sunday.

The child--a 2-week-old girl--was found by a passerby at about 5 p.m. Saturday in an alley behind a grocery store in the 13100 block of Van Nuys Boulevard. About 11 p.m., a woman walked into the Los Angeles Police Department’s Foothill Division, identified herself as the infant’s mother and tearfully asked that her baby be returned to her, Officer John Eum said.

The child had already been taken by the city child welfare authorities, Eum said. Officers spoke to the woman and told her that “a further investigation will determine what happens,” he said.

The woman was described as being in her twenties.