Women allegedly uses stolen baby to beg

By Rhodé Marshall
01 March 2008

The Central City Improvement District (CCID) arrested a woman for the abduction of a baby. The woman is known as a drug addict who frequently begs on the streets of the city centre.

Head of the CCID security Muneeb Hendriks says he was patrolling around Greenmarket Square when he saw the woman walking from stall to stall begging for money, holding a crying sweaty baby in the smouldering heat.

“I approached her and she immediately put up a scene and tried to run away and when I eventually caught her she said the baby was not hers and screamed it out loud,” says Hendriks.

He says they were extremely suspicious of why the unidentified woman was begging with other people’s child.

Hendriks and other security guards then decided to call backup to arrest the woman and the child was handed over to social workers from a woman organisation who confirmed that the infant did not belong to the woman.

“They couldn’t locate the mother immediately but the social workers were able to track down the grandparents and the baby was safely handed back to the grandparents again,” says Hendriks.

He says they are still trying to establish where or how the woman got the child.

“We are not sure whether the child was stolen or given to her. We have had stories before where mothers rent out their babies to others to beg on the street because they get more money with the sympathy,” said Hendriks.