She Saw A Baby In The Street During Her Lunch Hour In Jersey City. She Can't Forget Him.

JERSEY CITY, NJ — When Priyanka Jain stepped outside her office for a lunch break in Jersey City over the summer, she found a baby in the street.

While this might make a good first line of a short story, it actually happened. She says she can't stop thinking about that day.

Jain, 39, who lived all over the world before coming to New Jersey for college 22 years ago, recounted that day for Patch last week, saying people at work still ask her about the events, which so far have not been fully reported.

The Carjacking

Jain says that Friday, June 16, she was on her lunch break from JPMorgan, where she's a senior risk manager.

She was strolling toward the parking lot of the ShopRite/BJ's shopping plaza near the Newport Mall, an area within walking distance of the Hudson River and the Hoboken border.

"As I was entering, I started to hear really loud cries of a baby, crying hysterically," she said. "I thought, 'This doesn't sound right. I better check this out.' There was an infant lying on its belly on the concrete road 50 feet away from me."

The baby was behind a store, near the delivery trailers.

Jain looked around for a parent or baby carriage.

"The entire road was empty," she said. "There was nobody there. It was around noon."

She said because so many people work from home, the area near her office isn't always crowded at lunchtime. But a few people appeared shortly after she heard the cries.

"There were a couple of people who walked behind me," she said. "We got to the baby and tried to figure out what's going on here. He was lying next to a trailer that carries products."

She reached the boy and picked him up.

"My heart didn't allow me to leave the baby on the floor," she said. "It was really tiny, five months old. I calmed him down. at one point he even gave me a smile. I was happy for that."

Someone called police, and they arrived within five to seven minutes, Jain said.

"They seemed really happy I found the baby," she said.

She said that four or five police cars pulled up, including one that brought the baby's father.

"He literally ran toward his baby and he just hugged and kissed his baby and had so much emotion," she said. "It was very touching."

She said that while she handed the baby over to the father, she didn't get to talk to him.

"He was too overwhelmed with emotion," she said. "Probably a little troubled."

Within a few hours, news outlets, including Patch, received these details from police about a carjacking: Around noon, a young mother was inside her white Porsche Macan near Montgomery and Greene streets in Jersey City. Suddenly, a teen appeared near her vehicle and ordered her out of the car. He sped north on Marin Boulevard — with the infant in the back.

The teen drove out of town and was later arrested in his hometown of Newark. But apparently, he had dumped the infant before leaving the area.

Jersey City police spokeswoman Kim Wallace-Scalcione released these details to the press that week, when asked for information:

• Type of Call: Carjacking/Kidnapping
• Date/Time: June 16, 2023, at approximately 1200 hours
• Location: 30 Montgomery St.
• JCPD officers were advised by the female victim that the actor entered the 2023 White Porsche Macan through the driver’s side and demanded the female exit the vehicle. Upon exiting, the actor drove the vehicle away from the scene with the victim’s 5 month old son inside. JCPD officers located the vehicle matching the description traveling northbound on Marin Boulevard, but were not able to follow the vehicle due to the high rate of speed and time of day.
• During this time, the infant was located in front of 389 Washington [Blvd.] The child was transported to a local hospital where he was treated for minor scrapes.
• A 16 year old juvenile suspect from Newark was arrested by Newark police, where the vehicle was also recovered.

Police have not released the name of the arrested teen, because he's a minor.

What Happened Next

Ultimately, Newark police charged the teen with carjacking, kidnapping, and endangering the welfare of a child, officials said.

Jain said that while she was on the scene, the police told her some details of the crime that weren't released to the media.

"I was told that it all happened in a minute or two," Jain said. "The father got out [of the car] to drop off a FedEx package. Someone pushed the mother out of car and drove off with the baby."

She said that the police took her name, but she has never heard about how the baby is doing.

She said people at work have asked her many times to tell the story. She said nothing like that has ever happened to her before, or to anyone she knows.

She still thinks about the baby often.

"I think about him every day as I walk to work and pass by the exact same location," Jain said last week. "I am sure he’s doing fine, because he was smiling as he was hugging his father after I handed him over. He was unharmed, with extremely minor bruises, and I believe he was treated in the hospital afterward to make sure."

She added, "I really hope to meet his parents and him one day."

She said she took photos (above) at first because she was shocked by what she was seeing. "I thought, 'How can something like this even be occurring right now?' " she told Patch. "I was just confused, and wanted to do the right thing."

It's not unusual for a quiet act of heroism to go unheralded, particularly if only a few people see it. Back in June of 2022, Patch wrote about Uber driver James Price, a Matawan resident who pulled over on the Garden State Parkway when he was heading home from his shift and spotted a car on fire. He pulled a single mom to safety just before her vehicle exploded. The mom had been asking an OnStar operator to tell her 5-year-old son that she loved him. Despite dozens of comments of praise from Patch readers, Price said a year later that he hadn't heard from anyone about what had happened, although he eventually reconnected with the mother via Facebook. READ MORE: Uber Driver Pulls NJ Mom Out Of Burning Car On Garden State Parkway

Jain said last week, "What I took away from the experience is, we live in a world where there's so much coming at us: wars, pandemic, inflation. Be human, be kind, help each other. Really, we need to do that as the human race now more than ever."

READ MORE: Teen Charged In Jersey City Carjacking