A 39-year-old woman has been arrested for allegedly stealing a newborn baby from a hospital.
Natalia Edith González was caught by cops just 165ft from a border crossing.
CCTV footage from the hospital shows a woman cradling the newborn at the far end of a corridor while seemingly waiting for a patient to return to her room.
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As soon as the coast was clear, the suspect quickly stepped out of the ward.
The scary scenes were filmed at the Barrio Obrero Public Hospital in the Paraguayan capital, Asunción.
The suspect, an Argentine national, was reportedly posing as a nurse and wearing a face mask when the one-day-old baby was taken.
The grandmother of the infant’s 19-year-old mum said she drank tea with the woman before the alleged kidnapping.
She told the grandmother that she was at the hospital visiting an uncle.
The gran said: “I later asked my daughter where the baby was and she told me that the nurse had taken her to the paediatric ward.
“I told her that she wasn’t a nurse.
“We ran after the lady because we saw her with the baby in her arms.”
The authorities activated an alert throughout the country with particular attention on nearby border crossings.
Police spokesperson, Juan González, said: “We started to cover critical points in the city, especially the borders and footbridges, carrying out checks.”
He said that González ran out of the hospital and took a bus to the area of Mercado 4 last Thursday (16 Jan).
There, she bought clothes for herself and the baby girl and then took a taxi to Loma Pytá.
She then asked the taxi driver which bus to take to cross the border into Clorinda in Argentina.
Suspect González, who lives in the Argentine border city of Formosa, was caught by the Paraguayan police about 165ft (50m) from the border.
She had the baby in her arms at the time of her arrest, as reported by Need To Know.
The police said: “We proceeded to arrest the woman, who resisted at all times.”
The baby was returned to her teenage mother and is reportedly in good health.
Prosecutor Laura Finestra, in charge of the investigation, said the suspect lied to her partner and family, claiming she was pregnant.
The lawyer stated: “She told them she was in a hospital in Formosa to give birth, but in reality, she crossed into Paraguay on 14 or 15 December.
“She then chose a mother who was alone and stole her child.
“She visited two other hospitals before carrying out the kidnapping.
“González’s partner was shocked when he found out the truth.”
Finestra said they have evidence on the suspect’s seized phone that confirms the series of events.
There is currently no evidence linking the crime to a human trafficking network.
So far, González has chosen to abstain from testifying, following the advice of her lawyer.
Finestra said: “She insisted on giving contradictory and implausible versions.
“She even implicated other people, but everything was false.”
The investigation into the alleged abduction is ongoing.
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