This baby was left by the side of the road with $5,500, a cell phone and no note

“Please tell me that’s not what we think it is,” Alexis Harrison said to herself as she moved closer to the baby carrier on the side of Interstate 40.

But it was. The months-old baby boy was in remarkably good health, according to KOCO News.

Harrison was on a trip with a church youth group headed from an Oklahoma City amusement park back home to Ada, Okla., when Roger Prater, the driver of the group’s van, saw two tiny feet kicking from the carrier on the side of the highway.

“I’m driving back and we’re on 40 headed towards Shawnee and... I saw something out of the corner of my eye on the highway, and I was like, ‘That looks like a baby,” Prater told The Oklahoman.

They would later find out from police that the boy, no more than five months old, had most likely been sitting there just 30 minutes or less. It was 91 degrees Saturday near Oklahoma City, and the baby was not sweating.

Authorities found more than $5,500 in cash, a birth certificate and a cell phone tucked into the baby carrier. Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers were able to use those to track down the boy’s mother through relatives in Texas.

On Monday, it was reported that the mother had been located and taken to a hospital for evaluation. Late Tuesday afternoon, though, The Oklahoman reported that charges against the mother were not expected in the case.

“More than likely, they’re not going to file charges,” Capt. Bo Mathews, an Oklahoma City Police Department spokesman, told the newspaper. He reportedly declined to say why, and the mother’s identity has not yet been released.

Now, calls are flooding into Oklahoma’s Department of Human Services, as the baby boy remains in state custody. People want to adopt the little guy.

“We’ve received calls today and emails from people in Oklahoma and all over the country who want to adopt this baby,” Sheree Powell, who works for the DHS, told KOCO News. “We’re hoping to direct families today on how to find information on becoming a foster parent. Hopefully people’s passion will continue and they will follow through with that.”

This story was originally published September 27, 2017 at 8:08 AM with the headline "This baby was left by the side of the road with $5,500, a cell phone and no note."