Abused Mom Leaves Baby In Phone Booth For Social Worker To Find - But Then A Stranger Gets There First

Jan 26, 2019 by apost team

Over two decades ago, a man enters a phone booth in London expecting to make a call and be on his way with life. That didn’t happen. Instead of his original call, he ended up making a call to the police to report finding an abandoned baby. This is the story of Joe Campbell and Kiran Sheikh.

Joe Campbell thought he saw someone’s leftover trash littering an East London phone booth he was about to use. Upon closer inspection, he discovered it was a baby. At just two-hours old, Joe would be second only to Kiran’s birth mother in holding her.

He scooped the infant up and phoned for the police and an ambulance. Investigators discovered that Kiran’s birth mom had six other children.

She alleged that she was in an abusive marriage and had called a local charity to come collect the infant she had abandoned in the phone booth. Instead of a charity, Kiran was found by a complete stranger.

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It happens that he was a good-intentioned one or this could be a very different story. Joe opened his arms and handed baby Kiran over to social services that night, but she never left his thoughts. He’d formed an instant bond and connection with Kiran. 

Over the next seven years, Joe frequently contacted social services and gave them gifts, cards, and money for Kiran. He even offered to adopt her. Social services asked him to stop trying to make contact. He wasn’t eligible to adopt her because he was a single man. Kiran was given to a different adoptive family.

Kiran leaned at age eight that she was adopted. Social services didn’t, however, mention Joe. It wouldn’t be until Kiran turned 18 and received her file from Social Services that she's learned about her first few hours of life and the man Social Services simply labeled as a “Good Samaritan.” 

Kiran Sheikh took to social media to help contact the faceless, nameless stranger who’d found her and spent so much effort to just know her.

At age twenty-two, Kiran’s search finally paid off. Joe saw Kiran’s plea and immediately reached out to her. It would be a hug two decades overdue. Kiran now says she’d like to meet her birth mom.

She says she isn’t resentful or angry over her mother’s choice to leave her in that London phone booth. She doesn’t even want her birth mom to feel bad about what happened back on April 30, 1994. Instead, she’d just like to meet her now.

Feel free to leave your thoughts and questions in the comment section. If you have any information to help Kiran’s quest to find her birth mom, leave those in the comments, too.