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Police Search For Man They Believe Abandoned Boy In Harlem

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police are trying to track down a man they believe abandoned a little boy Thursday in Harlem.

Harlem-suspect
Police are trying to track down 22-year-old Antonio Staton who they believe abandoned a little boy Thursday in Harlem. (Credit: NYPD)

Officers were called to West 132nd Street around 11 a.m. where a woman found the child tucked behind a table and shopping cart.

"He was right here. I saw the head. Like I said, I thought it was a child playing and I was about to say, 'What are you doing playing in my area here?' I saw the baby, and he put his arms up and started to cry. I picked him up and said, 'it's OK,'" she told CBS2's Dave Carlin.

Police said a man left the 22-month-old boy inside the building's exterior foyer and placed a table across the opening to keep him from leaving. The man then went to a building next door and placed a bag full of diapers inside a garbage can.

He then walked to the corner of Eighth Avenue and discarded his sweater, police said.

"There was no one looking for the baby," the woman said.

Police said the child is in good health, but he's too young to communicate.

"I was carrying it around to see if somebody had known the baby. It's only like one or two years old," said the woman. "When I left it with the uniformed policeman, it cried to me 'mommy,' and that made tears come to my eyes, because I can't believe somebody just leave a baby like that."

Police identified the man as 22-year-old Antonio Staton. He's described as a black man, six feet tall, 170 pounds, wearing a black baseball cap, black T-shirt, black sweatpants and black and white sneakers.

Source told CBS2 Staton is the ex-boyfriend of the boy's mother. He allegedly picked the child up from daycare and then ditched the boy to get back at her after they got into an argument.

Daycare workers told investigators they let the child go with Staton because they had seen him with the mom in the past and thought it was OK, sources said.

The mother was questioned by police but is not expected to be charged.

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