DAVENPORT - Basically, the abandoned baby story was a hoax.

A 3-month-old baby was not left alone on a curb in the middle of the night Sunday. That's pretty much where the good news ends.

Davenport police had their hands full with this one, largely because the stories told by "witnesses" changed more often than the baby's diaper.

Initially, we were told the little boy was left on a curb in front of a row of apartment houses on Heatherton Drive, which is in northwest Davenport. Several hours after police picked him up and took him to the hospital, the infant's mother, Jessica Stiles, 20, was arrested on suspicion of child endangerment.

She could not be reached for comment Monday, but here is what police say went down:

Shortly after 1 a.m. Sunday, Stiles wanted to go to a party. She decided she would leave her baby with the man she'd been living with for two days, along with the man's aunt.

Stiles told police the man is her boyfriend, but he said he was simply giving her a place to stay because she has a baby and no other place to go. Despite Stiles' brief relationship of whatever nature, the man and his aunt were good and tired of looking out for her baby.

In fact, police now say that they both told Stiles the boy is her responsibility, not theirs. So, she evidently waited until they were out of sight in the apartment, left the baby in his car seat and split for the party.

But the aunt wouldn't have it, police said.

"She took the baby outside to a group of males that were friends of the mother," Davenport police Capt. Dave Struckman said Monday afternoon. "She told them, 'She's your friend, you watch the baby.'"

The men, police said, were considerably loaded. After another hour or so of drinking and babysitting, they came up with a plan: Call the cops and claim someone dumped the baby at the curb.

It may have been a dumb plan, but it wasn't the dumbest possible plan. Given the alternatives, which I'd frankly prefer not to imagine, the decision by a collection of drunk men to turn an infant over to the police was a pretty good call.

"They more or less fabricated the part of the story about the child being left at the curb," Struckman said.

Well, nobody's perfect.

At least two of the men were fairly surly with police, Struckman said, but the baby was safe. His little diaper was unsoiled, his clothes were clean, and "he was in pretty good spirits," police said.

He remained Monday afternoon in the custody of the Department of Human Services. The agency tends to be very secretive about these matters, so we may never know whether Stiles gets her son back.

If she does, they could both use a babysitter.

Barb Ickes can be contacted at (563) 383-2316 or bickes@qctimes.com.