A baby girl was safely surrendered Monday morning at the Safe Haven Baby Box at the Sugar Creek Fire Department in West Terre Haute.
Fire Chief Darrick Scott said the surrender happened around 8:30 a.m. Lt. Dillon Massey was the first to open the box and found a healthy baby girl inside. He stayed with her until the proper authorities arrived.
The box works with a silent alarm. When the outside door closes, dispatch is alerted, but there is a 60-second window before personnel inside are notified, giving a parent or guardian time to leave and remain anonymous.
Safe Haven Baby Boxes, the nonprofit that installs and monitors the boxes, said this was the 90th infant safely surrendered through a Baby Box since 2017. The organization said it has also helped facilitate more than 225 surrenders through its national hotline.
The Sugar Creek box was installed in February 2024. It is one of 152 Baby Boxes in Indiana, part of a network of nearly 490 boxes across 27 states. The Safe Haven crisis line is 1-866-99Baby1.
