Thanks to commenter BettyWu who pointed out that the "hero cabbie" was anything but, since it turns out the whole story was made up: "Mr. Sailema [the driver] was part of a scheme to help an overburdened father in the Bronx who told his neighbors that the girl’s young mother had disappeared and he could not take care of the girl on his own." It's longish story that I won't try to summarize here, although there's one laughable line from Sailema's attorney, Kevin Faga, who says that the cabbie did the right thing under New York State's Safe Haven Law. That law lets people bring an infant who is in danger to certain places, firehouses included. You can also call a toll-free number run by the AMT Children of Hope Foundation, which the driver may have tried to do, according to a Daily News report. Little detail, though: the child can't be more than 5 days old. Kev the Lawyer needs to do a little googling before talking to the press.

In retrospect, the whole "jumped out to use a pay phone" story was pretty specious, but I guess even cynical New Yorkers (myself included) would prefer to believe the best in a story like this. I hereby revoke the props I gave the driver earlier.