Joplin police
Authorities in southwestern Missouri last week arrested a woman they believe intended to sell a baby on Craigslist.
What’s so wrong with that, you ask?
Well, police say 29-year-old Alice Huff-Sims didn’t have a child to sell and had been stringing along three different parties who wanted to pay her for a baby.
Joplin police began investigating Huff-Sims last week after getting a complaint of someone trying to sell a child on the online ad site. On December 8, two police department employees working undercover acted as potential purchasers of the baby and met Huff-Sims, who claimed to be pregnant, at a local McDonald’s.
Huff-Sims was then allegedly paid a down payment for the supposed unborn child, and it was agreed she’d receive the full amount when the child was born.
After the transaction, police arrested Huff-Sims in the parking lot of and determined that she was indeed, not, pregnant. Police say they’ve since discovered that she’d been corresponding via text message with three other potential purchasers.
Huff-Sims has been charged with felony stealing.