Pejaten resident's account: Found a baby in her mother's nasi uduk cart; my hands were trembling

A 20-year-old Pejaten resident from Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta, was the first to find a two-day-old baby girl in her mother’s nasi uduk cart near her home on Tuesday, 3 March 2026. Initially, Dinda was using her mobile phone on the first floor of her house at the end of a narrow alley. She heard a baby’s cry and thought there probably wasn’t a baby there, but the sound grew louder. She went downstairs and told her father she could hear the crying.

Dinda went outside and, looking to her left, noticed a black shopping bag on her mother’s nasi uduk cart. Her hands trembled and she felt faint, admitting she did not dare to pick up the baby. She called her sister and mother to come and see the infant. “My hands were shaking when I saw it; I felt faint. I didn’t dare to hold the baby. In the end Teh Ulan held it,” she said.

Dinda surmised the baby cried because something may have fallen onto it. After her sister picked up the baby, the crying stopped.

At the time, Dinda did not see who had left the baby there. A neighbour in front of the house was also away. Another resident, Ati (53), said she saw a man carrying a black shopping bag towards Dinda’s house around 4:30pm WIB. The resident thought the man was a courier delivering a package. “I thought he was a courier; when they told him to place the bag on the cart, there was no one calling out,” Ati said in a separate interview.