California woman abandons baby in Subway bathroom toilet after giving birth

A woman gave birth in the bathroom of a Subway restaurant in Los Angeles County Monday before abandoning her child in a toilet, according to police.

An umbilical cord running from the restroom’s trash can and into the toilet led employees that moing to the child, a boy who lay in the bowl with his head above cold water.

Later, a trail of blood from the mother led police out of the restroom, through the Subway’s door and north toward a shopping center on a busy intersection, Cpl. Rudy Lopez of the West Covina Police Department told USA TODAY NETWORK.

There, behind a Pep Boys store, Lopez said, police found the mother, 38-year-old Mary Grace Trinidad.

The West Covina Police Department provided this booking photo of Mary Grace Trinidad, shown during a Jan. 3, 2016, arrest.(Photo: West Covina Police Department)

Police arrested Trinidad for attempted murder and child abandonment. She remained hospitalized for treatment Tuesday evening.

The child, initially in critical condition, was in good condition Tuesday evening at Queen of the Valley Hospital, said Lopez. The boy, bo full-term, was expected to take formula that day.

Surveillance video of the restaurant shows a woman entering the Subway’s restroom at 8:07 that moing. She exits the restroom 10 minutes later, looks over her shoulders, and leaves.

Surveillance video provided by police. (Photo: West Covina Police)

“We tried to keep her in and she just walked out, and there’s a crying baby in the restroom,” a woman identifying herself as a Subway employee says in 911 call audio provided by police.

In the call, a dispatcher directs the caller to wrap the child in towels from the restaurant.

On Tuesday, police stressed Califoia’s “safe surrender” law, which insures new mothers can hand over newbos at any hospital or fire station without questions as long the child is less than three days old.

Trinidad was previously arrested in January by West Covina police for possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphealia.