Vancouver baby-for-sale on craigslist???
Vancouver Island police have investigated another Internet posting advertising of a baby for sale. The ad appeared on the popular classifieds website Craigslist on Friday.
Police say the posting was traced to a Saanich, B.C., home.
They say the computers at the house were checked and it appears someone had hijacked the Internet address at the residence.
Police say no child is in danger and the posting was a hoax.
The posting follows another that was made to Craigslist in the Vancouver area earlier this week.
The parents in that case admitted to posting the ad, but said it was done as a joke.
The parents were initially arrested and later released, though police say they are still contemplating charges. The baby was removed from the home.
Vancouver couple have been arrested but will not be charged after posting an Internet ad on Craigslist, offering their seven-day-old baby for $10,000, police said Tuesday.
Vancouver police Const. Tim Fanning said he had never heard of such a thing in his 27 years as a police officer.
Ten police officers worked on the case, he said, tracking the Craigslist posting to a west-end apartment.
“Police knocked at the door and asked if there was a baby in the apartment,” Const. Fanning told reporters at a news conference.
He said the 23-year-old mother was found nursing a seven-day-old baby.
Among the four adults in the apartment was the baby’s father, also in his 20s.
The couple were initially arrested for questioning about the ad.
“They said it was just a hoax,” Const. Fanning explained.
The father, who placed the ad using a computer found in the apartment, was taken to jail.
Police sent a report to Crown recommending a charge of public mischief, but the Crown didn’t feel there was enough evidence to support the charge, he added.
The baby was taken from the couple by a social worker and placed in care, Const. Fanning said.
Last week, authorities in Germany said they were investigating a couple after they offered their eight-month-old son for sale on the Internet auction website EBay.
A number of people had contacted police when they say the posting online offering a baby for a sale because it cried too much. The opening bid was 1 euro ($1.57).
There were no bidders in the auction in the two hours it was posted online. The 23-year-old German woman told police that it was a joke.
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