Mom arrested after baby left in shopping cart

A one-year old baby girl left in a shopping cart yesterday in a grassy area separating a Bensalem apartment complex and a shopping center, is doing fine and did not suffer any lasting injuries, a Bensalem police spokesman said today.

Police on Sunday arrested the baby's mother, Loretta Hall, 30, of Middletown, Bucks County, charging her with endangering the welfare of a child and recklessly endangering another person.

Hall was arraigned before District Judge Robert Wagner and is being held in the Bucks County prison on $50,000 bail. The baby is now in the custody of the Bucks County Children and Youth Services Social Services Agency. Two residents of an apartment complex on Knights Road saw the baby alone and crying in the shopping cart about 7:30 a.m. Sunday. While one tended to the baby, another walked around the complex and later found Hall, a police report said.

The baby was "very cold to touch" and was not properly dressed for the 35-degree temperature, the report said.