David Volk was just hours old when he was found by a manager in the sink of the women’s restroom in a Newark McDonald’s in December 1977. He was adopted a year later and never really considered looking for his birth mother because he had no information about her.
But, inspired by the case of a woman who found her birthmother decades after she left her in a Burger King, Volk says he is thankful for his life and is looking for his birthmom. Volk says he was inspired by Katheryn Deprill, who appealed for her mother who had left her in a Burger King – and was reunited with her after three weeks.
Volk, from Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania, didn’t even try looking for his mother because he had no information about her – but after Katheryn Deprill posted an image on Facebook explaining that she’d been dumped in a Burger King 27 years ago, he has now shared an image on his Facebook profile showing him holding a sign reading: ‘Please help me! I am looking for my birth mother.’
“I just never thought there was any hope,” he told the Star-Ledger. “Being abandoned in a McDonald’s, no records. After seeing [Deprill’s] story, and she found her mom so quickly, that’s what gave me the inspiration to do mine.”
Volk still had his umbilical cord attached when a manager found him wrapped in a brown plastic bag in the sink of the women’s restroom in a McDonald’s in Newark, New Jersey in December 1977.
A lot has happened to Volk since he was discovered, only hours old, wrapped in a plastic bag in the bathroom of the eatery. He formed a close bond with his adoptive family, launched a career, got married.
Volk isn’t angry with his mother. He says he developed a close relationship with his adopted family and siblings, and has lived a full life. He enjoys camping and swimming and has been married for several years.
This is simply about closure, Volk says.
“I believe she was young, maybe hiding her pregnancy or whatever, and she probably didn’t have the means to support me, and I believe that she left me there for somebody to find me,” he said. “That’s my belief. Is that the truth or is it the way it’s going to be? I don’t know.”
For all his hope, Volk doesn’t have much to go on. Clothed in a sleeper and a receiving blanket, Volk was found in a brown plastic shopping bag on the floor of the women’s restroom inside of a McDonald’s at 915 18th Avenue, according to a Star-Ledger article published in December of 1977, the year Volk was born.
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The restaurant, located between Carolina and Melrose Avenues in the city’s West Ward, remains there today.
The baby boy was in “tremendously good health,” his umbilical cord still attached and a splash of blood in his mouth, which indicated he was “approximately two or three hours old,” a hospital administrator told The Star-Ledger at the time.
Adoption records back up Volk’s story, showing he went by the name “Christopher McDonald” because of the circumstances of his birth. His name was legally changed when he was adopted a year later, records show.
