THE shocking moment a New Jersey teen handed her newborn baby to a stranger in a Mexican restaurant and fled was captured on video.

Surveillance footage shows the girl, 14, enter the restaurant and abandon the baby while the umbilical cord was still partially attached.

Frankie Aguilar, an employee at El Patron in Jersey City, told NJ.com that the teen came in around 4pm on Wednesday asking for help.

"She kind of looked a little bit desperate," he said.

The teen, whose name has not been released since she is a minor, reportedly initially said that she had found the infant.

A customer who happened to be eating in the restaurant at the time, and also happened to be CPR trained, asked if she could check the child's vitals.

After the teen handed the child off to customer Alease Scott, she immediately left the restaurant.

"I said do you mind if I check the baby's vitals, she readily handed the baby over to me so my focus went right onto the baby," Scott told ABC 7.

Scott said that she noticed that the baby was struggling to breathe and applied an oxygen mask to the child.

"All of a sudden we heard the most beautiful cry and the baby started moving, she slightly opened up her eyes and then she closed her eyes," Scott said.

"But the sweetest thing was when she got hungry and she was trying to suckle on the oxygen mask so we knew she was OK after that," she added.

Police quickly responded and took the child to Jersey City Medical Center.

The teen was located not far from the restaurant and was taken to the hospital as well.

Police said that the baby will be put up for adoption and that the teen is not facing any charges at this point.

Both the baby and the teen mother are doing well, police said.

Scott said she's just happy she happened to be at the restaurant.

"She just was desperate and didn't know what to do," she said of the teen. "She was so young."

New Jersey has a Safe Haven Infant Protection law, which allows parents to give up an unwanted newborn anonymously at a hospital, police station, or firehouse.

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