A teenage woman stole a newborn baby from a hospital room while the child’s family slept.
The incident
Cuane Malaquias allegedly stuffed one-day-old Ravi Cunha into a duffle bag to smuggle him out of the hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
She then ran back to her home in Favela of Morro do Borel – five miles away.
Mother Nívea Rabelo, 27, was fast asleep following the birth.
At around 2am she noticed her son had vanished from Amelia Buarque de Hollanda Municipal Maternity Hospital.
Hospital bosses said 19-year-old Malaquias likely climbed and entered via a balcony before sneaking onto the third floor.
CCTV tells
CCTV footage showed the teen stalking through the hallways. It is believed the baby was in the oversized bag at the time.
The footage showed her then vanishing out of the main entrance without being stopped, as reported by SunOnline.
Cunha’s grandad, Davi, later revealed that his daughter-in-law had breastfed the child and his wife had changed his nappy before they took a nap.
Speaking to local news, he said: ’20 minutes later, when (his wife) woke up to look at Ravi, he was no longer in the basket.
The search
‘Immediately, my wife tried to find out from the other roommates if someone had picked him up to calm him down, but no.
‘My wife went into despair, went to the nursing station, and they detected the disappearance’.
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Police received an anonymous tip from a neighbor and arrested Malaquias at her home Wednesday, Nov. 1, at 8:15am.
Police took the baby back to the hospital, where he was reunited with his parents.
Local news claimed Malaquias, a mother to a five-year-old girl, had claimed to have been pregnant at the time.
Malaquias told police that the newborn boy belonged to her.
Ravi Cunha’s maternal grandmother confronted the 19-year-old outside the police station.
She shouted: ‘Why did you do this to us? Why? May Jesus forgive you! He loves you! May He have mercy!’
