Livery cab driver Klever Sailema is shown meeting with the media in this image taken from video, Friday, Feb. 29, 2008 in New York. Sailema, who made headlines this week when he claimed that a passenger had abandoned a baby in his car on Thursday, Feb. 28, was arrested Saturday, March 1, and charged with making up the tale.
Robin Carlson, Administrative Director of Emergency Service, holds the baby that was abandoned in a livery cab, during a press conference at St. John’s Hospital in Queens on Thursday, February 28, 2008.
Cabby’s ‘Klever’ Story of Abandoned Baby Daniella
A cabdriver who dropped off a baby at a firehouse, claiming someone had left her in his car, was arrested Saturday and charged with making up the tale to help an overwhelmed family abandon the child.
Klever Sailema had been hailed as a good Samaritan after he dropped the baby off Thursday in Queens, saying the child, who was about 6 months old, had been left in his livery cab by a stranger.
The case had captivated the city after pictures of the adorable baby girl — who police now say was born to a 14-year-old girl and a man nearly twice her age — were published in newspapers and broadcast on TV.
The cabbie had told investigators his fare was a nervous-looking man who had gotten in carrying the baby and a diaper bag, then disappeared after asking the driver to pull over so he could make a phone call.
Sailema, 44, provided enough detail that police released a sketch of the suspect. He repeated his tale to reporters at a news conference on Friday.
Police didn’t immediately say what broke the case open, but a family friend, Stuart Caban, said he took the teenage mother to police Friday evening after finding her walking in the Bronx, carrying a newspaper with her daughter’s picture and sobbing.
“She was depressed, scared, crying. She loved her daughter. She wanted to be with her,” said Caban, a 23-year-old bail bondsman.
The girl told her she hadn’t wanted to leave the baby but ran away after a violent fight with the father, Caban said.
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