Date Published: 20/10/2022
ARCHIVED - Woman poses as nurse to kidnap baby in Bilbao
The newborn has been found safe and the kidnapper arrested in Spain
A 24-year-old woman donned hospital garb and posed as a nurse to snatch a newborn baby from the Basurto Hospital in Bilbao late on Wednesday night, October 19. According to reports from the regional police force in the Basque Country, the Ertzaintza, the young woman told the baby’s mother that she was taking him briefly for some routine tests before fleeing the health centre with the infant.
A city-wide alert was immediately launched to locate the missing baby and, thankfully, he was found several hours later, apparently unharmed, on the doorstep of an apartment complex in the Santutxu neighbourhood.
According to Security Councillor of the Basque Country, Josu Erkoreka, the kidnapper has been identified but remained at large for over 12 years before being caught. Frighteningly, he added that she had made several other attempts to steal babies from the gynecology area of the same hospital earlier that night.
The Ertzaintza and the Bilbao Local Police launched urgent appeals on social media for citizens to report any sightings of the woman, who was described as obese, 1.60 metres tall with long, curly hair tied in a ponytail. She also limps slightly when walking.
She was last seen at around 11pm on Wednesday night wearing a white short-sleeved T-shirt, patterned tights, sneakers and a black crescent-shaped bag, crossed as a shoulder strap. She was then carrying the baby, who was only a day old, in her arms along with a rectangular raffia-type bag.
However, at the time of the kidnapping, she was reportedly dressed in a white medical uniform.
“She has moved intensely through Bilbao tonight in one direction and another,” Erkoreka said last night.
The woman was caught and arrested early on Thursday morning.
Image: Ertzaintza
Loading
Sign up for the Spanish News Today Editors Roundup Weekly Bulletin and get an email with all the week’s news straight to your inbox
Special offer: Subscribe now for 25% off (36.95 euros for 48 Bulletins)
OR
you can sign up to our FREE weekly roundup!
Read some of our recent bulletins:
25% Discount Special Offer subscription:
36.95€ for 48 Editor’s Weekly News Roundup bulletins!
Please CLICK THE BUTTON to subscribe.
(List price 3 months 12 Bulletins)
Read more stories from around Spain:
Contact Spanish News Today: Editorial 966 260 896 /
Office 968 018 268