Uproar As Photo Of Newborn Left On Its Own In Car With Note Goes Viral

A newborn baby was found alone in a locked car with a note written from the child's perspective about the mother's whereabouts.

A photo of the baby and the scrawled note which had a mobile phone number on it has sparked anger online after it was printed in the New Zealand Herald.

The baby had been left in the car seat in the back seat of the car while the mother went shopping at a supermarket.

The mum wrote the note from the baby's perspective. It read: "My mum's in doing the shopping, call her if I need anything."

A man who parked next to the car spotted the child and raised the alarm.

He told the New Zealand Herald what the note said and that it had a mobile phone number written on it.

"We waited there for a little bit, wondering if the mum was just going to be two seconds and come back.

"And my wife said, 'I'm not going in without someone being here with the baby'."

Another two passers-by waited by the car, one of them phoned the mother telling her to come outside.

The local police said they had not spoken with the mother and they could not investigate if there was no complaint.

Police would "absolutely" investigate if a complaint was made, NZ Newswire report them as saying.

Sky News reports that it is illegal in New Zealand to leave a child under 14 years old alone for an unreasonable time or in unreasonable conditions.