Infant found next to passed-out father in Modesto restaurant drive-thru, police say

A 2-month-old boy is in the custody of Child Protective Services after being found wet, cold and crying next to his passed-out father in the drive-thru of a fast food restaurant Wednesday morning, according to Modesto police.

The man who found the child, Ryan Downey, is an electrician who was working on the Farmers & Merchants Bank next to the Wienerschnitzel on Carpenter Road.

Downey arrived at the job site about 6:30 a.m., he said, and heard a sound he couldn’t distinguish, so he went toward it to investigate.

When he looked in the drive-thru, he saw a stroller and realized that the sound was that of a baby crying.

Downey said he ran next door to the 76 gas station, the only business open at that hour, because he thought the child’s parent might be inside.

He found no one but the clerk, so he ran back to the Wienerschnitzel just as his co-worker was arriving.

The headlights of his co-worker’s truck lit up the drive-thru, and that’s when Downey saw a man lying next to the child, both of them on the ground behind the stroller.

Downey said he approached the man and child. “I was shaking him and yelling at him, but he was unresponsive. I picked the baby up, but the guy didn’t even move.”

The child was wearing a pajama onesie and was wrapped in a blanket. Downey said the child wouldn’t stop crying, and his diaper was dirty and soaked.

Downey called 911 and took the infant to his truck, where he turned on the heater.

Firefighters arrived first and were able to rouse the baby’s father.

“He kind of jumped up and grabbed his stuff and flipped everybody off and started walking away,” Downey said.

Then he ran, but police caught him a block away, said Modesto Police Department spokeswoman Heather Graves.

Officers learned that the man, 24-year-old Raymond Collingwood, and the child’s mother are homeless but have been staying with her mother.

The couple got into a fight at the mother’s home the night before, and Collingwood then left with the child, Graves said.

She did not know whether the mother reported to police that Collingwood had left with the child, but the baby has not been returned to her custody and remains in the care of Child Protective Services.

The boy was taken to the hospital and medically cleared.

Collingwood was arrested on suspicion of felony child endangerment. Graves said officers believe he was under the influence. He also had three outstanding warrants on drug charges and obstructing justice.

Downey said the experience was shocking. “I was pretty messed up all day,” he said.

This story was originally published December 24, 2014 at 2:55 PM with the headline "Infant found next to passed-out father in Modesto restaurant drive-thru, police say."