Feb 11, 3:05 PM (ET)
By CURT ANDERSON
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) - A woman who claimed to have rescued a newborn boy after he was thrown from a moving car was actually the child's mother, fabricating the story to conceal her pregnancy, officials said Friday.
The woman, who kept her pregnancy a secret from her family and others, had planned to take the baby to authorities, Broward County Sheriff Ken Jenne said. She then built her story after seeing two people argue inside their car, he said; the baby was never thrown.
"It's not as horrible as we first thought," Jenne said. "The baby was never thrown out of a moving car. This is the case of a disturbed woman who gave birth and did not want to keep her child."
The woman gave birth Thursday afternoon, and an hour later dropped him off at a Broward sheriff's substation, telling authorities her tale of seeing the boy tossed out of the car, Jenne said.
The 38-year-old woman has not been charged.
"She has indicated that she does not want the child," Jenne said.
The 8-pound, 2-ounce boy, whose umbilical cord was still attached when he was brought in, was hospitalized in good condition Friday. Nurses at the hospital have nicknamed the child Johnny.
State law lets a mother leave a baby at any medical facility or fire station within three days of birth without any questions asked.
A woman had said thought the people in the