SANTA PAULA : Suspect in Baby-Sale Scheme Is Arrested
A woman wanted in Florida for a scheme in which she offered to sell her baby was arrested in Santa Paula Thursday, police said.
Mary Mock, 23, had been charged in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., with three counts of grand theft and one count of an organized scheme to defraud, said Santa Paula Police Sgt. Gary Marshall. She disappeared in Florida after being released on $100,000 bail, Marshall said.
Mock allegedly told couples looking to adopt that she was pregnant and offered to sell them her baby, Marshall said. Once she received goods and services, she disappeared, he said.
Marshall said Mock served time on similar charges in Pasadena a year ago. She apparently had tried similar ploys in New Jersey and in the California cities of Palo Alto and Claremont, Marshall said.
Santa Paula police received a tip from Florida officials after they saw a report about Mock on a nationally televised news program.
She was being held in Ventura County Jail for extradition to Fort Lauderdale, Marshall said.
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