BALTIMORE (AP) — A 7-month-old boy and a teenager who was left to briefly watch him have not been seen for days and the baby’s mother on Sunday pleaded for her son’s safe return.

Ki’Yauhn Birch was left in Jonae Boozer’s care at the boy’s father’s home in Baltimore on Friday evening.

During a support rally Sunday night, the baby’s 20-year-old mother, Whitney McGee, tearfully pleaded, “Put my baby somewhere safe and call somebody. He’s probably hungry.”

The baby’s father, Charles Birch, arrived late, saying he had been questioned by police.

Birch said he barely knows Boozer, who is a friend of a friend. The girl stopped by his home on the west side of Baltimore and asked for a cigarette. He left her to watch the baby while he went to a store to buy some, he said.

“I went to get cigarettes, and my son’s gone,” he told The Baltimore Sun.

“I want my son just how I left him,” he said with tears in his eyes.

Ki’Yauhn’s belongings and a bottle the infant hadn’t finished were left behind, Birch said.

Birch said he didn’t know how to reach Boozer and that he called police Saturday morning.

Police said they believe Boozer may be in Prince George’s or Montgomery counties. She is black, 5 feet, 4 inches tall, and has a blond mohawk hairstyle and piercings in her lips, nose and eyebrow.

Neighbors came out to show support and pass out fliers. They said they would help the police search for the baby.

Kevin Tossie held the hand of his 7-year-old daughter, Kenae.

“It’s a shame you can’t trust people these days,” he said. “I would lose my mind if something happened to her.”

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.