Woman who allegedly posed as a social worker to kidnap a baby turns herself in
A woman who allegedly posed as a social services worker in an attempt to kidnap a baby born less than two weeks ago turned herself in to police for questioning Friday.
Santa Ana police said a woman knocked on the door of a home in the 2300 block of South Evergreen Street at 11:30 a.m. Friday. The woman allegedly told the mother that she was there from social services, understood the resident had a baby recently and was there to immediately take custody of the child, said Anthony Bertagna, a spokesman for the Santa Ana Police Department.
The suspect had no identification or business card. The mother told the woman she would only let her baby go if she could come along, but the woman she didn’t have room for the mother in the car, Bertagna said.
The woman then turned around and left, Bertagna said. A family member grabbed a phone and shot a video of the woman as she left and drove away in a white SUV.
After Santa Ana police confirmed with Orange County social service workers that the agency had no case open with this family, and that the name she gave to the mother did not match any county social services employee, police began distributing the video of the suspect to news outlets.
Shortly after 6 p.m., Bertagna said, the woman walked into the Santa Ana Police Department and identified herself as the person in the video. “We detained her and brought the victim to the station. She positively identified her,” Bertagna said.
The woman was subsequently arrested.
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