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MICHIGAN CITY — When Coolspring Township Volunteer Fire Chief Mick Pawlik was alerted Tuesday night of activity at the department's Safe Haven Baby Box, he assumed it was another case of someone opening the drawer out of curiosity or carrying out a prank.

Then his pulse began to race when he peeked through holes in the receiving side of the box, which is mounted in the wall at the station just southeast of Michigan City.

"I can see this sweatshirt and I seen a little bitty arm," he said. "I opened it up and that baby just looked me right in the eyes."

Pawlik said the baby remained calm and quiet as he and firefighter Nick Fekete scrambled around in the excitement of the moment in search of gloves that were right before them, resulting in Fekete being temporarily locked out of the building in the confusion.

"I'm all about kids," he said. "That's why I'm as elated as I am right now."

Medics arrived to recover a baby who appeared to be no more than an hour old.

"The umbilical cord was still on," Pawlik said. "The baby was not cleaned up yet."