I have a 23 year old daughter who has a 5 month old baby, until 2 days ago she lived with the father of the child. They are not married and he decided to leave the relationship. He took off and left her with no money, no gas in her car, and not even a see you later. They lived in a house that my husband and I make the mortgage on but the utility bills were in the boyfriends name. The boyfriend called yesterday and wanted to come and get the baby. Later that day he also called and left a message on my cell phone that he was going to have the utilities turned off and if I wanted my daughter and the baby to continue living there that I would need to have them turned on in my name. I told her that it was a bad idea as I feel he abandoned them. She says that she sill loves this jerk and took the baby to his house and left the baby so he could visit with him.
We live in Florida and I say that if he has the baby and doesn't want to give him back that she is out of luck as there is no court order in place yet. I am so scared that when she goes back to get him tomorrow that he and his parents will say hit the road and then say she was the one who abandoned the baby. Am I right and if so and this should happen does she have any recourse? He is listed as the father on the birth certificate. Please help quick.

You are correct. With not custody papers in place he has as much right to his child as she does. If she goes to get the baby and they won't let her have her then your daughter needs to go to court ASAP! She needs to do so anyway but it will be even more serious if he won't return her because as of this point there is no recourse. Tell her to get a court date as soon as she can for support and custody orders.

You are very correct, he can just not open the door, refuse to give the child back and there is not a thing she can do expect to file in court for custody.

She needs to file for a custody order ASAP.

ALSO he may be thinking that the baby being with him and with his shutting the utilities off and her having no money and no real means of supporting the baby that he can turn it over to child services so that she is not even able to get the baby back. If that is what his plan is then he really is pulling something on her and she is falling right into it.

This is exactly what I am afraid of. She has a place to come to which is with me. She just can't get past this I love him thing. I would hate to see her have a big battle over this because she can't get her emotions together. Haven't heard from her this AM so I don't know yet what may come this day. I am also afraid that he nad his parents may give him back today to show how trustworthy they are. It just seems to me that now that she has let him keep the baby overnight it makes no difference that he abandoned the baby. I have told her she needs to call legal services immediately and until she gets on her feet to go and apply for asssistance. I really just want to bail her out but she's just not listening. Maybe it's time for tough love it's just really hard because I really love the baby. But if she can't follow my advice I can't do a thing.

Let us know what happened but, from experience, if you still have the message on your cell phone keep. If she does end up going to court over anything this can show that he has no regard to his child's well being.. knowingly leaving your doughter with no money to have utilities turned back on. Yes, you may have the capabilities but he should not put the responsilbility on you.
Also, just keep documentation of any wrong doings it really helps...
I've been keeping a notebook for 9 years.