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Fact check: Photo of abandoned baby is from Chicago in 2021, not recently in Kansas City

BrieAnna J. Frank   | Paste BN

The claim: Image shows abandoned baby found in Kansas

An April 12 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shows a photo of a newborn being held in someone's arms.

"SPREAD THE WORD…#Kansas," reads the post's text. "Police are asking for the public’s help in identifying this baby boy, who is less than a week old and was found in the Drawer of a discarded dresser in an alley."

The post, which was shared in the group "Kansas City Free," was reshared more than 500 times in less than a week. Another version of the claim said the baby was found in an Australian city and was shared more than 2,500 times. 

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Our rating: False

Police departments in both Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas City, Kansas, said they have not received any reports of an abandoned infant in their respective jurisdictions. The photo shows a baby who was found in an abandoned dresser in Chicago in 2021. It’s an example of a copy-and-paste scheme that scammers use to identify future victims. 

Photo is of abandoned newborn found in Chicago in 2021 

There are no credible reports of any such discovery in local news outlets, and police departments in both Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas City, Kansas, said the incident did not happen in their areas. 

"I've seen no reports that match that description," said Sgt. Jacob Becchina, a spokesperson for the Kansas City Police Department in Missouri. 

Nancy Chartrand, a spokesperson for the Kansas City Police Department in Kansas, also said she was unaware of any such incident in the city. 

The photo featured in the post actually shows a newborn who was found in a dresser drawer in Chicago in 2021. It was included in reports about the incident from outlets such as the Chicago Sun-Times and WFLD-TV at the time.

Pleas to the public to identify the baby were made on Facebook in 2021 when the child was discovered. The recent posts appear to be reusing the text of those earlier genuine posts.

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Jeffrey Blevins, a professor at the University of Cincinnati and a misinformation expert, previously told Paste BN these types of copy-and-paste schemes are used by scammers to identify potential victims.

“It’s a gullibility check,” Blevins said. “They’re likely to circle back to you later to see what you’re willing to share, or they might try to engage you one-on-one, get you to accept a friend request, that kind of thing.” 

Other signs of a potential scam post include having the comments disabled and coming from a newly created Facebook account. 

Paste BN has previously debunked similar scams, including posts that claimed to show a woman hospitalized after being attacked, a boy missing out of various cities and a young girl injured in a hit-and-run crash. 

Paste BN reached out to users who shared the claim for comment.

Our fact-check sources: 

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