Hospital Sensors Avert Newborn Kidnapping

My husband and I got a huge kick out of the triple layers of security we went through when checking into the hospital for the birth of our first child. And then once the baby was born, we had to do that thing where the baby had sensors put on her and we had matching sensor bands. We couldn’t leave our room without them checking these sensors.

And thank God for them!

Just today a California woman disguised in scrubs was caught trying to steal a newborn baby girl from Garden Grove Medical Center in Southern California. According to the Associated Press, she stuck the baby in a duffel bag and headed for the doors. The woman, who is 48, has no record of mental illness, police say. And they also say they haven’t established her motive for the crime.

The suspect is accused of posing as a nurse who came into the room of the baby’s mother and told her to take a shower before a doctor came to examine her, Nightengale said.

Once the baby’s mother was out of the room, the woman allegedly put the newborn in a duffel bag and tried to carry her out of the ward.

“An alarm went off when the baby crossed an imaginary line” in the hospital that set off a sensor, [Lt. Jeff] Nightengale said. He added that the baby was only in the duffel bag for a short period of time.

Nightengale credits an alert employee and hospital policies for stopping the suspect and saving the baby.

Got that right! I will never joke about the Fort Knox-level of security ever again.

(Photo: Everett Collection/Shutterstock)