Child Appears On eBay Auction Site

A Michigan woman is under investigation for allegedly auctioning off a two-year-old girl on eBay, Sky News reports.

According to police, another eBay user posted a $1,000 bid for the child, thinking the auction was a fake, and contacted authorities when the bid was accepted.

The woman believed to be responsible for the listing was babysitting the child for her cousin and claims that the auction wasn't serious. She said that she created the post, which was titled "kid for sale" and included a photo of the child, to test an eBay feature she had never used before.

"It was just a joke, that's all, you are all taking it way too seriously and blowing it way out of proportion," said the woman, according to Sky News. "I thought well wouldn't it be funny, seeing as I have all these pictures of her on my computer to put her on there.

"At this juncture," stated Lieutenant Mark Bennett of the Ottawa county sheriff's department, "we really do not believe the child was actually going to be exchanged. We are probably talking more about a false pretense situation."

Tracy Cromwell, who posted the $1,000 bid, said that she contacted police because she wanted the child's name and photograph removed from eBay.

"Once I clicked on got the info, I could easily track her down, had her name and phone number and information, I could have gone to look for her," Cromwell told WWMT.

The child has been returned to her mother in Montana, writes 41NBC

[via Digital Life]

Comments

[Adam Dray]

01:28 PM on 05/26/2011

.....I wonder how you'd rate and calculate shipping and handling for that...........I actually have to believe it was a joke (not a very funny or good one at that), cause who would b so ...moronic to actually try something like that? SO yeah let ebay charge her for a false auction and false pretense

[guybytheseansc]

02:10 AM on 05/26/2011

Knowing Ebay and how they are FEE CRAZY!!!! They probably charged the buyer a final value fee! They also probably charged the seller listing fee's and a final value fee. That's just EBAY! But Ebay is probably crying because since the transaction was canceled they lost their PayPal Fee! (Ebay owns PayPal too FYI).

[B Kleitz]

01:05 AM on 05/26/2011

Why are all you fox news trolls here?

Y'all are some wacked out folks.

[ThisAlreadyHappened]

02:16 AM on 05/26/2011

Its kind of like when the morlocks come to the surface to feed upon the eloi. The horns are a blowin and its feedin time.

[B Kleitz]

03:20 AM on 05/26/2011

OMG...that made me laugh really really hard. Glad I wasn't drinking my coffee at the time!!!!
Thanks for that.
Fanned and Faved!!!

[dvdsn61]

02:26 AM on 05/26/2011

Hey "SUPER USER". I think your right, Women trys to sell a kid and you put down Fox watchers. Your right, someone is really "wacked out", but i dont thinks its the Fox news viewers.

[B Kleitz]

03:20 AM on 05/26/2011

GO AWAY.

[lpritch370]

04:14 AM on 05/26/2011

You hit the nail on the head there. I am surprised he stopped at Fox News watchers. It woulnd't have surprised me if they try to blame it on George Bush.

[robertste998]

12:34 AM on 05/26/2011

How could that represent a joke to any parent?

[lannetteramos]

11:42 PM on 05/25/2011

I dislike when people shrug off their stupidity as a "joke". It really irks me when people say or do mean things and call it a joke. I love humor, and it is a tremendous gift to humanity to laugh, but iIfailed to laugh at this. it was just PLAIN IGNORANT.

[Hitchslap2]

11:18 PM on 05/25/2011

This takes wack-a-doodle to a whole new level!

[Jessica Ashley]

10:58 PM on 05/25/2011

There was a (German?) couple who did this a few years ago with a baby, I do believe CPS came and thet got in big touble...but this is America and it was a joke...laugh it off. We can't laugh off South Park, but we can laugh off putting a pic of a child on ebay with a for sale sign...What a messed up bunch of people.

[r87acura]

10:19 PM on 05/25/2011

Can I ask a stupid question: If it was all for FUN and a PRANK, even though they are
cousins...WHY was the arrested one living ( and selling on E-bay ) in Michigan. and the Mother living in Montana. I'm not buying the excuse !

[Lisa J Morgan]

12:00 AM on 05/26/2011

That's exactly what I thought - a baby sitter in another state? Something's fishy about this one and I would definitely find out what - poor little girl :(

[Misha Van leuven]

12:36 AM on 05/26/2011

maybe the cousin was watching the baby because the mother was at a conferene for work in another state. When I was growing up my parents had to go out of town a couple of times and I remember an older cousin watching us for 3 days a couple of times.

[robsjunknstuff4u]

10:17 PM on 05/25/2011

Maybe mom & dad shouldn't be dumping their resposibility with such an immature person.

[glamarama]

10:16 PM on 05/25/2011

someone truly needs to implement some laws for the internet. It is free reign for all illegality...

[Beth Curtin]

10:47 PM on 05/25/2011

I completly agree!

[KRTaylor]

10:06 PM on 05/25/2011

I have a lazy, mouthy eighteen year old I'd like to sell.

[vlady1000]

09:17 PM on 05/25/2011

Just another reason to avoid Ebay. A good place to operate a scam, fence stolen merchandise, and lie. It was a good site 12 years ago, but then the thieves found it.

[scg35]

09:12 PM on 05/25/2011

Oh thats right, We have a society where people no longer have a sense of humor. Anything that is said or done is taken so seriously. I really doubt she had intension's of selling the kid.

[ruthieriver1]

09:11 PM on 05/25/2011

Wait, hold up there........Back in my day before the internet was so massive we just sold our kids in the Pennysaver.....Geeeezzz let up people, what happened to the old joke I'll tape a 20 to my kids forehead and put him in front of the grocery store......and to get a little off the subject, when I was little they didn't give us tv or gameboys, or xbox's....we had to actually get off our asses and play outside....and I had a great childhood....we would get backhanded if we talked to our parents a certain way...all this mopey therapy stuff....c'mon give me a break!!!!

[pjd120]

09:53 PM on 05/25/2011

Fanned and Faved ruthieriver1, I was raised the same way. And yes I don't think she was trying to sell the child either.

[onebluebrick]

09:03 PM on 05/25/2011

That is one person who would never get within five miles of myh child!!