Atlanta (CNN) Georgia authorities are searching for the mother of a newborn found wrapped in a plastic bag and abandoned in a wooded area in Cumming.

Residents of a nearby home were unloading their car after a trip Thursday night when they heard a noise coming from a secluded, wooded strip of land. At first, they thought they were animal sounds.

(We) grabbed our flashlights and we're driving around and we're, like, 'That doesn't sound like an animal,'" Kayla Ragatz told CNN affiliate WSB.

They went into the woods and followed the sound to a pile of leaves and sticks, and then saw the baby wrapped in a plastic bag.

"You don't anticipate hearing a baby in the woods," Sheriff Ron H. Freeman told reporters Friday. "Thank God they went out and investigated."

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