In October 2025, Racine firefighter Marco Ostricki watched a stranger set a newborn girl inside the wall of Station 4.
On Sunday afternoon, September 27, the silent alarm behind that same wall sounded one more time.
What the crew found inside is the best argument yet for the law Wisconsin built to save her.
Newborn Girl Surrendered at Racine Fire Station 4 Safe Haven Baby Box
It happened around 1 p.m.
Someone opened the small climate-controlled door on the Washington Avenue firehouse, laid a baby inside, and walked away.
The moment she was inside, the door locked and an alarm tripped inside the station.
Firefighters and EMS crews checked her over right away.
She was healthy.
She was checked out at Ascension All Saints Hospital and is now in the custody of child protective services, headed for a permanent adoptive home.
Under Wisconsin's Safe Haven law, the parent never gave a name, never answered a question, and won't face charges.
"We are thankful that this parent chose a safe option and that this baby is now receiving the care and protection they deserve," the Racine Fire Department said.
Monica Kelsey started Safe Haven Baby Boxes after learning as an adult that she had been abandoned as a baby.
"Every time a fire chief calls me and lets me know that we got another baby in one of our boxes, you know, it's exhilarating, it's exciting, but also it's heartbreaking, because you know that a mother is on the other side of that box with a broken heart," Kelsey told CBS 58.
America's First Safe Haven Baby Box Waited Eight Years for a Newborn
The first Safe Haven Baby Box in the country went into the Woodburn, Indiana, fire station in 2016.
It sat empty until September 2024.
Racine's box went into service on December 10, 2024.
It has now saved two little girls, less than a year apart.
The first came on October 16, 2025, the first baby box surrender in Wisconsin history.
She was less than a day old, and she's already with a family that plans to adopt her.
Kelsey said that child will grow up knowing the firefighters at Station 4 loved her first.
The money came from Racine Knights of Columbus Council 15659, which partnered with the fire department, Pro-Life Wisconsin and Wisconsin Right to Life to install it.
A group of Catholic men passing the hat has now saved two lives.
The Republicans Who Wrote Wisconsin's Safe Haven Law
Wisconsin's original safe haven law cleared the Assembly 97-0 in 2001, letting a parent hand an unharmed infant to police, EMTs or hospital staff with no name and no prosecution.
In 2023, Republicans Sen. Joan Ballweg and Rep. Ellen Schutt wrote the bill that let fire stations, police departments and hospitals install baby boxes.
Schutt said the boxes give a parent in crisis "a way for them to give up their child and save their life."
That's the genius of the box – a terrified parent never has to look anyone in the eye.
Republicans Sen. Rob Hutton and Rep. Rick Gundrum then wrote the bill stretching the surrender window from 72 hours to 30 days, and the Senate passed it unanimously.
It became law in March 2026.
"Extending the age to 30 days ensures parents in crisis have more time to make the right decision for their newborn baby and will save more lives," Hutton said.
Even Tony Evers signed both bills.
An April 2026 proclamation from Evers counted more than 400 Wisconsin babies safely surrendered and adopted since 2001.
By May 2026, baby boxes in 24 states had taken in 77 babies, according to National Right to Life.
Abandoned Newborn in a Whitewater Field Shows Why Baby Boxes Matter
In March 2023, months before the Legislature passed the baby box bill, a newborn was left to die in a field by a Whitewater trailer park.
Whitewater has a Safe Haven Baby Box now.
The pro-abortion crowd loves to claim pro-lifers stop caring the minute a baby is born.
Tell that to the Knights who raised the money, the Republicans who wrote the bills, and the firefighters who answered that alarm twice.
As of October 2025, Wisconsin had seven baby boxes – in Racine, Howard, Reedsburg, Watertown, Elkhorn, Whitewater and Trevor – and each is a door a desperate parent can open instead of walking into a field.
Two parents in Racine faced the worst day of their lives, and both chose life.
A wall at Station 4 made sure that choice was a safe one.
Any parent in crisis can call the Safe Haven Baby Boxes hotline at 1-866-99BABY1, answered around the clock.
Sources:
- Wisconsin Right Now Staff, "Racine Fire Dept's Baby Box Saves a 2nd Newborn Girl as Wisconsin's Safe Haven Law Keeps Working," Wisconsin Right Now, September 29, 2026.
- Andie Bernhardt, "Newborn Girl Safely Surrendered at Racine Fire Station's Safe Haven Baby Box," CBS 58, September 28, 2026.
- Meg Roessler and Debra Worley, "Newborn Safely Surrendered to Very First Safe Haven Baby Box Installed," WHSV, September 10, 2024.
- Isabella Doer, "Safe Haven Baby Boxes Dedicated in Three More Communities," National Right to Life News, May 8, 2026.
- Pro-Life Wisconsin, "Governor Evers Signs Safe Haven Baby Box Bill," Pro-Life Wisconsin, January 3, 2024.
- Eric Chaloux, "Wisconsin Legislature Passes New Safe Haven Baby Box Legislation," KSTP, November 17, 2023.
- Sen. Rob Hutton, "Safe Haven Expansion Signed Into Law," Urban Milwaukee, March 13, 2026.
