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This weekend we came down with a slight case of Safe Haven Baby Box Derangement Syndrome (BBDS) over what happened to the Safe Haven Baby Box located Crestview, Florida Fire Department Station #1 opened only 6 months ago.
We noticed a few days ago that the PTB at SHBB Inc said during the Chiefland box opening that this location housed the 6th box in the state. But our records indicate it is #7. We went to the company’s website location map and only 6 are marked. (The map is difficult and time consuming to decipher–why not a list, too?) An April 4, 2025, article in the Tallahassee Democrat lists 6 locations, also: 2 in Ocala/Marion County and 1 each in Chiefland, Crystal River, Newberry, and Spring Hill.
But no Crestview!
We were sure we didn’t imagine or make up the Crestview baby box (We, in fact had never heard of Crestview, Florida, until the town hit the news with its box). Here’s a news story on its “blessing.” that includes a video.
We can’t find a video of the complete blessing itself, but here’s a clip that was posted on Facebook about box “education” held at the Crestview the fire station. (Sorry, we couldn’t embed it)
So, where is the Crestview box?
- Did it tumble down the SHBB Inc adoption memory hole along with the anonympus babies and moms it says it saves?
- Why is it deactivated after only 6 months?
- Has it malfunctioned?
- Will it return?
So, what’s going on?
It appears that 4 boxes have been deactivated permanently over 3 years. Moreover, at least 2 Ohio locations were deactivated due to various problems but are now back in operation. Here are the permanent deactivations that we know of:
- Hammond Franciscan Hospital, deactivated in late December 2022 when the location was shut down. The closure was announced on the SHBB Inc FB page. This box caught 2 publicly announced babies: Baby Grace and Baby Myah. Reportedly the box would be placed at another Franciscan facility later, but nothing has been announced.
- Hicksville (Ohio) Community Memorial Hospital closed in September 2024, but SHBB Incm as far as we can findm never posted the closure.
- Bloomington Downtown Fire Station suffered severe flood damage in 2021 and was closed for 3 years. The box was not restored in the refurbished facility. A different box was placed in another Bloomington-area fire station later. that appears to have been a separate project.
- Columbia City Fire Station, with no known explanation, does not appear on the location map
It’s weird that no announcement was made. SHBB Inc likes to give the total number of boxes it’s installed, but then doesn’t seem to reveal when box is closed, which makes it look like it has more boxes running than it does. There may be other inactive boxes as well, but we’d need a small grant to pay someone to do the tedious work of plowing through the company’s time and mind-sucking location map. (Try it. You’ll see what we mean.) Granted the number of deactivated boxes is small, but you’d think at least a footnote is in order as a courtesy and perhaps even a safety measure. Some “desperate parent” might think a box is where it was and now isn’t.
If we are mistaken and documentation is presented that Bloomington and Columbia City are running, we will gladly correct. We’ also like to see if any more boxes are gone.
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