Baby Left with Note PHOTO: Mom Leaves Newborn in Locked Car with Phone Number to Go Shopping, Sparks Facebook Outrage in New Zealand

An unidentified woman from New Zealand left her baby locked in a car with a note reading "My mom's in doing the shopping, call her if I need anything" along with a cellphone number in a supermarket parking lot on Saturday, March 24. A concerned passerby took a photo of the unattended newborn and a radio DJ posted it on Facebook - the shocking image soon sparked a viral outrage. Authorities claim that although a very dangerous thing to do, the woman could be prosecuted because police didn't receive any complaints about the incident.

The sleeping infant sat in a baby seat, wrapped up in a pink blanket and hat, when the passerby snapped the photo:

The note left on the baby's lap says, "My mom's in doing the shopping, call her if I need anything." The mother's cellphone number was also scribbled on the slip of paper.

The man who took the picture had just parked in Porirua's Pak 'n' Save with his family when he first noticed the child. He told the New Zealand Herald, "We waited there for a little bit, wondering if the mum was just going to be two seconds and come back... My wife said, I'm not going in without someone being here with the baby."

Two other individuals agreed to wait by the vehicle with the baby - one of them eventually called the mother, urging her to come back.

Radio DJ Polly Gillespie first posted the image on Facebook on Sunday - it garnered close to 1,500 in the first 24 hours alone.

Facebook user reactions to the photo were mixed - some people were completely shocked, while others believed the mother should be cut some slack:

Cat Marie Horne: "I'm sorry this is completely irresponsible! You do not leave children under the age of 14 unsupervised at all.... Why did she have time to write a note?? Secondly, you do not put a capsule seat in the front of a car, due to dashboard airbags. Also, if you are that tired you should not be driving."

Linda Gill: 'It's not something I would have done but I choose not to come on here and condemn her. It's very easy to come on here and cast judgement on others, because I'm sure you've never, ever done anything wrong in your lives. The difference is someone took a photo this time. Aren't you all glad that someone isn't following you around with a camera. (Aimed at no one in particular, just food for thought)."

Marty Fryer, the supermarket's compliance manager, said he was not made aware of the situation until someone alerted him about it on Sunday - "We have staff in the car park so if they saw something like a baby in a car they would bring it to our attention."

Porirua police Senior Sergeant Justin Rakena said authorities could do nothing about the issue until someone complained:

“We weren’t called, and we’ve had no complaints. If they do call us, we’ll be acting on it... We were never called at the time, so we’ve got nothing to go on. We’d look at it like we look at anything.”

He claims that unfortunately, these types of situations happen frequently in the area:

“I don’t know what the stats are, but anecdotally you might have a kid left in a car once a fortnight, something like that. This is quite common, and quite often there’s an innocent explanation. At a guess I’d say 95% of these things can be explained away.”

A police spokeswoman also confirmed, "We don't know who the people are, we don't know the phone number, we don't know where to start... We would launch an investigation if we could but at this stage no one's come forward."

Plunket National Child Safety adviser Sue Campbell explains that there are significant risks with leaving a baby or young child alone in a car: "Babies can dehydrate quickly and become very distressed. So for a newborn that's one of the key issues. Plus there's a security issue - a small baby is unable to defend itself if need be, or call for help, or anything like that."

A parent or guardian who leaves a child under the age of 14 alone for an unreasonable amount of time or in unreasonable conditions could be fined up to $2,000 in New Zeland.

Do Mstars readers think actions should be taken against the irresponsible mother?