---
title: "Woman Finds Newborn Baby, $5500 in Cash in Car Seat on Side of Oklahoma Highway"
description: "It's still not clear how the four-week-old boy ended up there."
date: "2017-09-27"
modified: "2017-09-27"
authors:
  - name: "Kyle Cheromcha"
    job_title: "Editor-in-Chief"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/kyle-cheromcha"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/14678/woman-finds-newborn-baby-5500-in-cash-in-car-seat-on-side-of-oklahoma-highway"
categories:
  - "News"
tags:
  - "baby"
  - "car seat"
  - "highway"
  - "Oklahoma"
  - "police"
---

# Woman Finds Newborn Baby, $5500 in Cash in Car Seat on Side of Oklahoma Highway

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/2017/09/car-seat-baby.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

File this under horrible *and* miraculous: an Oklahoma woman found a one-month-old baby boy—along with his identification papers and $5500 in cash—sleeping in a car seat in the tall grass right next to a busy highway as she and her husband drove by, [reports *KOCO News*.](<https://www.koco.com/article/you-see-this-in-movies-this-isn-t-real-life-woman-says-about-finding-baby-by-i-40/12472860>)

Alexis Harrison told *KOCO* that her heart dropped on Saturday when she spotted the [car seat](<https://www.thedrive.com/watch-this/11812/watch-this-baby-fall-out-of-a-moving-car>) on the side of I-40 outside Oklahoma City with what appeared to be a child strapped inside. She immediately pulled over, along with another driver and a church group traveling in their van who had the same startling realization. What they found, in Harrison's words, was like something from the movies—a four-week-old infant sleeping soundly next to his birth certificate, social security card, and a whole bunch of cash.

Even stranger, the baby was dressed in clean clothes and appeared to be healthy and well-cared-for. First responders estimated that he had been left out in the [90-degree heat](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/13150/11-child-heatstroke-deaths-in-cars-reported-last-week-alone-scientist-says>) for around thirty minutes, [according to *ABC News,*](<https://abcnews.go.com/US/okla-woman-finds-baby-car-seat-filled-cash/story?id=50118788>) and he was given a clean bill of health. Police later tracked down the boy's mother and took her to a hospital for a psychological evaluation. They're still investigating how he ended up on the side of 1-40.

"We don't know why she did what she did," Police Sgt. Gary Knight said to local media on Tuesday. "But people do the strangest things sometimes. I don't recall seeing a case like this where a baby was just left on the shoulder of the highway. This could have had a very tragic ending."

Thankfully, it looks like the exact opposite is happening. The Oklahoma Department of Human Services [is reportedly being inundated](<https://abcnews.go.com/US/okla-woman-finds-baby-car-seat-filled-cash/story?id=50118788>) with calls from around the country from people hoping to adopt him.

https://youtube.com/embed/Hkf1333C75I

## Author
Overseeing an expert staff of writers and editors from his lair in Los Angeles, Kyle shapes The Drive’s singular approach to covering the automotive industry and car culture. He’s been with the site as a writer since 2017, taking over as editor in 2019. On a daily basis, Kyle is responsible for directing The Drive's editorial news and car review content strategies, setting special coverage priorities, managing complex reporting projects, and ensuring what you read on the page meets our high internal standards for quality and trustworthiness. He is also the executive producer of The Drive's YouTube channel, which was relaunched in February 2024 to great acclaim and has accumulated over 14M new views in its first year back on the scene. He hosts a biweekly series on the channel where he breaks down fascinating and complicated stories from the automotive world.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/kylecheromcha.bsky.social>)  
[Instagram](<https://www.instagram.com/kylecheromcha>)  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-cheromcha-1550248a/>)