(WXYZ) — A 13-month-old child was found alive in an impounded vehicle after spending days alone inside a car that had been parked on a Detroit-area street and later towed to an Eastpointe lot. The child's father is in custody, and the case has been referred to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office for a charging decision.
Watch Randy Wimbley's video report:
Harper Woods police say the toddler was discovered Saturday in the rear of a vehicle at Woods Towing and Services in Eastpointe. The child was crying, but is in stable condition and expected to fully recover. Child Protective Services is now involved in the case.
The vehicle had been parked on Damman Street near I-94 in Harper Woods. Neighbor Debra Ruffin said the car first caught her family's attention Thursday night because of how and where it was parked.
"Awkwardly parked like half, not half, but a little bit in our driveway to here," Ruffin said.
Related Video: Debra Ruffin talks about the car parked in front of her house
"And you can't park on this side of the street, so that caught our attention," Ruffin said.
Ruffin's husband reported the vehicle to Harper Woods police on Friday. Officers had it impounded that afternoon.
About three hours before the car was towed, Detroit police say the child's mother arrived at the 9th Precinct on the city's east side to report her baby missing. A Detroit Police Department detective reached out to Harper Woods and learned the vehicle — belonging to the child's father — had been towed, leading investigators to suspect the child might be inside.
Detroit detectives and Harper Woods officers went to the impound lot Saturday and found the toddler in the rear of the car. Harper Woods police say the car was "locked at the time of the tow and unable to be thoroughly inventoried."
Ruffin said she and her family were shaken when they learned a baby had been just steps from their front door.
"I was speechless. I had to calm down. I was driving when I got the information. I had to pull over and catch my breath," Ruffin said.
"And the temperature was going up and down. That was the thing that ran across my mind… that poor infant, that poor baby," Ruffin said.
Ruffin said that while her family noticed a child's car seat inside the vehicle, they never saw a baby.
"Well, somebody needs to pay for that. That was an immoral act," Ruffin said.
Neighbor Kaylee Hightower said the discovery left many in the community unsettled.
"Me and my cousins were talking about it yesterday, like how can somebody forget a baby? In a car? Who wasn't looking for the baby?" Hightower said.
The case has been handed to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, and a charging decision could come soon.
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