A baby girl was abducted from a hospital in Brazil just three hours after her birth by a woman posing as a doctor, police say.
The anonymous woman tricked the baby’s parents into believing she was a medical professional who had entered the hospital room to feed the newborn.
Instead, she grabbed the baby and stuffed him inside her yellow backpack, before running out of the facility in the middle of the night Tuesday, authorities said.
The woman was found on Wednesday morning, along with the newborn, in Itumbiara, Goiás, 133 kilometers from the medical center in Uberlândia, Minas Gerais.
Uberlândia Civil Police Chief Marcos Brandão said the baby is in good health.
Authorities in Brazil located a newborn baby girl on Wednesday morning who had been kidnapped from a hospital on Tuesday. A woman (pictured above) who appeared on surveillance cameras leaving the hospital with her was arrested.
The girl was stolen from the Outpatient Clinic of the Federal University Hospital of Uberlândia just three hours after being born by Caesarean section.
“He was tested and is doing well. There are no signs of abuse,” Brandão was quoted as saying by Brazilian media outlet G1.
Surveillance video showed the suspect exiting a red vehicle at 11:18 p.m. wearing a lab coat, cap, mask, gloves and carrying a yellow backpack as she walked toward the clinic Tuesday.
At 11:46 p.m., the woman was seen walking with a hospital worker with the baby in her backpack.
Nine minutes passed before CCTV showed her walking towards the car with the baby in one of her hands before speeding away.
The girl’s father, Edson Ferreira, told Brazilian media outlet G1 that the fake doctor visited his room, where his wife and daughter were under observation after giving birth by Caesarean section at 8 p.m.
Like the security guards, they were ‘fooled’ by the woman’s behaviour during the five minutes she was in the room.
Police said the newborn is in good health and “doing well” after being located Wednesday morning.
Edson Ferreira, the boy’s father, said the fake doctor told his wife he was a “pediatrician and that he was going to take the baby to feed him.”
A woman posing as a doctor entered the Federal University Hospital of Uberlândia in Uberlândia, Brazil, on Tuesday night and kidnapped a baby girl just three hours after she was born. The girl was found in good health on Wednesday morning and the suspect, whose name has not been revealed, was arrested.
Surveillance cameras showed the moment when a woman dressed as a doctor headed to the exit of the Federal University Hospital of Uberlândia with the newborn baby in her backpack.
“She was very articulate. She came in and touched my wife’s breasts to see if she had milk,” Ferreira recalled.
‘She said she was a pediatrician and that she was going to take the baby to feed him.
‘Minutes later I saw that my little girl had not returned and that’s when we realized that she had been taken away.’
Military police said the suspect placed the baby in the backpack and left the hospital undetected.
The Federal University Hospital Clinic of Uberlândia is investigating the incident.
Authorities told Brazilian media outlet G1 that the suspect is also being investigated for the November 2020 murder of Uberlândia pharmacist Renata Bocatto.