[imagesource: YouTube / HeraldLIVE]

Keep your friends close, your enemies closer, and your baby in a shopping trolley closest of all.

Late last month, CCTV footage from inside the Meyersdal SuperSpar in Gauteng showed a staff member taking a baby from a lady’s shopping trolley while she wasn’t looking.

The man insisted he meant no harm but has been charged with attempted kidnapping.

Fast forward a few weeks and we have another alleged baby snatching, this time at a cash and carry store in Cleary Park, Gqeberha.

News24 reports:

Police spokesperson Colonel Priscilla Naidu said the child’s parents, aged 23 and 28, were shopping at the store on Monday when the incident happened…

“The child was seated in the trolley. While [the parents] were busy at the fridges and [had] their backs to the trolley, it is alleged that a female walked up to the child, touched her, and then walked away.

Seconds later, a second woman walked past and grabbed the baby from the trolley.

She is visible in CCTV footage:

A one-year-old girl was snatched from a trolley at a cash and carry in Cleary Park, Gqeberha yesterday. Security was alerted and the child was found in the store. Police subsequently arrested two suspects. #Kidnappings pic.twitter.com/1ab7MT5PuN

— Yusuf Abramjee (@Abramjee) September 6, 2022

The baby’s father was the first to notice what had happened and alerted security guards at the front door:

As the security guard was about to close the doors, the first woman pointed out to the father that the child was with the second suspect,” Naidu added.

“The women indicated that they were just joking with the parents. The suspects and the complainant do not know each other.”

I’ve heard of some poorly thought-out pranks in my time. Snatching a baby as a joke ranks among the worst.

Police weren’t buying the excuse and the two women, aged 51 and 56, were arrested and charged with kidnapping.

[source:news24]