Mum arrested for leaving baby outside restaurant as she dined reveals simple reason she did it
A mother who was arrested for leaving her baby outside a New York eatery in 1997 says she still feels she was unjustly vilified and has explained why she did it.
Then an actress in her 30s, Sørensen parked her 14-month-old daughter in a pram outside a barbecue restaurant in Manhattan's East Village neighborhood while she and the baby's father, a New York-based playwright, had margaritas inside on a chilly May evening.
Sørensen said she repeatedly checked on the blanket-covered baby during the hour they were at the restaurant before a patron summoned police.
The parents were arrested on child-endangerment charges that were eventually dropped. Child welfare authorities briefly took charge of the girl.
Telling the New York Post how American parents "live in fear," Sørensen explained leaving a child unattended was common parenting practice in Denmark.
She said she was exercising what Danish people call "tillid" - a deep trust that is an essential part of the culture.
“I had lived in New York [during school], so, of course, I knew that I didn’t see prams all over the city,” she said.
“I had been living in Copenhagen, I had given birth to my daughter in Copenhagen, I was raised myself in Denmark… that’s just how you do it in Denmark.
“People live in fear [in the US], children are not allowed to play in the playground alone."
New York residents were astounded at the idea of parents leaving a child alone on a sidewalk.
Conversely in Denmark, residents were equally stunned by the notion of being arrested for leaving a child unattended for a spell while shopping or dining.
Sørensen felt otherwise, filing a $20 million (AU$26 million) false-arrest lawsuit against the city.
A jury in 1999 awarded her $66,000 (AU$86,000) rejecting many of her claims but agreeing that she should not have been strip-searched, among other findings.
Sørensen, who now lives in Hamburg, Germany, with her husband two children said she is trying to raise money online to get an English translation of a novel she wrote based on her 1997 experience.
"I always had a big longing for an apology," she says in a fundraising video that also features her now 21-year-old daughter.
"I probably never will get this apology."
