A Kansas mother said a stranger allegedly tried to kidnap her newborn baby inside a Shawnee, Kansas, Target store, a report says.
Rachel Youngs was shopping at the Target on November 2 when a stranger approached her and began saying how cute her nine-week-old daughter is, according to Fox 31.
Youngs said that the woman was very friendly at first as the two bantered about babies, dogs, and other things.
“Just was super, super nice and she went to the front of my cart and asked me if she could hold my daughter,” Youngs told the media. “And she starts taking her out of the car seat, and she hands me her dog.”
The mother of the child allowed the woman to hold her baby, but then the conversation quickly turned odd, Youngs said.
“As she’s holding my baby she started saying weird things. She starts asking me, ‘Do you have a godmother?’ I said no, and she said, ‘I’d love to be your godmother, I’ll split everything 50/50.’ And I was like this is kind of weird, like, who says this to a random person?” the mother added.
Then the strange woman told Youngs that she had been arrested for attempted kidnapping in the past and then began to walk away holding the baby.
“All of a sudden, this woman starts walking off with my daughter, and I yelled to her. I said, ‘I need my baby back!'” Young said.
Youngs alerted store employees, and the police were called in to take a statement.
Shawnee police said they know the identity of the woman and an investigation has been opened.
For her part, Youngs said she would think twice about letting a stranger hold her baby again. “I try to trust people, and so many people do, but you can’t trust anyone,” Youngs said.
Youngs also said that she hopes the police find the woman to prevent her from doing the same thing to another mother.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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