Police arrested a woman in connection with the kidnapping of a 3-day-old baby boy from a Pittsburgh, Penn., hospital on Thursday.
Breona Moore, 19, of McKeesport was arrested for allegedly kidnapping Bryce Coleman from Magee-Womens Hospital in Oakland, the Post-Gazette reports.
Previously, Moore told her family members that she was pregnant, but they did not believe her. On Thursday morning, she allegedly purchased black hospital scrubs under a false name and gained access to the mother's hospital room by telling nurses she was the mother's sister.
According to the report, the suspect posed as a nurse, claiming she needed to take the baby for a checkup and left the room. The family eventually realized something was amiss and alerted hospital officials.
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Moore faces various charges including concealment whereabouts of a child, criminal trespass, kidnapping a minor, falsely impersonating persons privately employed, interference with custody of children and recklessly endangering another person, WPXI reports.
Leslie Davis, president of Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC, issued the following statement to WPXI:
The baby abducted today from Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC has been examined by our physicians and found to be in good health. Mother and baby have been reunited. We'd like to thank the police, the FBI, and our staff for their great and rapid work to bring this incident to a successful conclusion. We will be reviewing this event to see what improvements could be made in our security procedures.
The case bares a striking resemblance to an incident that happened in Los Angeles just two weeks ago.
Grisel Ramirez, 48, will face five counts of first-degree burglary and one count of kidnapping after allegedly trying to steal a newborn to cover a fake pregnancy. KTLA reports that Ramirez allegedly dressed as a nurse and attempted to snatch the baby from Garden Grove Medical Center by putting him in a large tote bag.
Hospital officials were able to stop the suspect before she left the hospital, according to KTLA.