'I found my baby on the subway'

A gay couple has won hearts around the world as their tale of finding an abandoned baby on the New York subway went viral.

Social worker Danny Stewart was taking the subway home when he saw what he thought was a doll.

Wrapped in a jumper and hidden on the floor behind a turnstile, the tiny bundle was in fact a day-old baby boy, his umbilical cord still attached.

Stewart's partner then received the phone call that would change his life.

"I found a baby!" Stewart shouted to Peter Mecurio, who told his amazing tale to the New York Times.

"I called 911, but I don’t think they believed me. No one’s coming. I don’t want to leave the baby alone. Get down here and flag down a police car or something."

The authorities did eventually arrive, and the baby was taken into foster care. But the judge presiding over his placement then had what she later described as a "hunch."

"Would you be interested in adopting this baby?" she asked Stewart.

Without consulting his partner, he immediately answered - "Yes."

The couple were screened to become foster parents, and within 36 hours the child was in their care.

They went on to raise the boy, who they named Kevin, and who is now 12 years old.

When gay marriage became legal, it was Kevin who suggested that the "judge with the hunch" officiate at his parents' wedding, Mercurio says.

She performed the ceremony, and they were married in July 2012.

Mercurio, a playwright, has written a screenplay about the unlikely tale for a film to be titled Found (a True Story).