Cop given a baby for Christmas

2003-11-26 06:43

Vera Schoeman

Port Elizabeth - A police officer has received an early Christmas gift - a court ordered that a newborn baby she found be placed in her care.

If baby Lisa, who was abandoned at birth, is not claimed by March 31, the police officer will be able to keep her permanently.

An ecstatic inspector Anel van Eyk said: "I was meant to find the baby. The minute I held her shivering, ice-cold body in my arms, I realised it was God's wish. She is my child."

The single mother of two children, Bianca, 5, and Ruan, 7, said they had all bonded with the baby in the past two weeks.

"I can't believe we are really taking her home tonight," she said.

Van Eyk was filling her car with petrol in New Brighton on November 13 when she saw two colleagues run out of a derelict house.

"They ran for their radios and I thought they were in the process of arresting suspects," she said.

"I went to see what was happening and that was when I heard little cries from a toilet bucket."

To her shock and horror she found a bloody baby lying in the sewage.

Transferred to place of safety

"I couldn't stop myself. I immediately picked her up," said Van Eyk.

The baby's umbilical cord and placenta were still attached.

With the help of bystanders she was able to clean up the baby. She gave it to her colleague to hold so she could drive the infant to hospital.

Apart from a deep cut to her head, baby Lisa did well and was soon transferred to the Erica Place of Safety.

Van Eyk said this broke her heart.

She immediately started the legal process to have the infant placed in her care.

Van Eyk and the Erica staff have called the baby Lisa, which in Xhosa means "a promising future".

- Die Burger