Cameron Johnson, a mother of three from Ukiah, stopped at the gas station on her way to Emeryville on Saturday.
About an hour earlier, surveillance video shows how another mother, 21-year-old Joia Hukill walked into the restroom with her baby in a stroller and nine minutes later, walked out without him. The child 15-month-old Charles Evans Edwards IV couldn't talk, but he could cry.
When Johnson brought her daughter into the ladies' room, she found Charles in his stroller clearly upset. She checked the stalls for a mother and when she couldn't find anyone, she went outside and kept looking around. Then she realized the baby had been abandoned.
Gas station clerk Charlotte Escobosa called the police. She has no sympathy for Charles' mother.
"I was saying if she had the nerve to come back and ask for her kid back, she was not getting that kid back. I don't care how hard she tried," said Ecobosa.
Hukill is now in jail on child endangerment and abandonment charges, saying she was on crystal meth and just forgot him in the restroom.
Solano County Child Protective Services has Charles; another family member is the preferred solution.
"That's really our first option is to make sure that there's a relative that's able to care for the child. If not, then we'll bring them into foster care," said Patrick Duterte from the Solano County Health and Social Services.
Johnson has offered to be that foster care.
"I'm sure protocol call is typically a family member that's pretty familiar, but if that woman felt like that was her only option, clearly a family member hasn't stepped forward to help her and if that is truly the case, I would absolutely volunteer to bring him into our home," said Johnson.
She's called three Solano County agencies to follow up, and has not yet heard back.
