A woman has been arrested in Vancouver, Washington for trying to sell her 3-day-old infant to a woman eating in a Clark County Taco Bell.
Heidi Knowles, 36, was arrested at a nearby motel after the woman at the fast food chain called the local sheriff’s office. Knowles had tried to sell the woman her newborn for an affordable $500. (Colorado woman turns tables on TSA, gropes an agent)
The Seattle Times reports the baby was found with Knowles at the motel in good health. Deputies called Child Protective Services, which took custody of the child.
The manager of the motel was surprised Knowles tried to sell the baby, since the infant was clean and “when she put him on the bed for a nap, he was always safely far away from the edges.”
“She seemed to be taking very good care of him and then … We were surprised,” the manager, Patricia Morris, told Fox 12 in Oregon.
The motel’s other manager, Oliver Morris, spoke to the woman’s father after she was arrested. Knowles had apparently told her father she wanted to “sell [the baby] and leave. Go someplace else, start over.”
Police arrested Knowles, who was reportedly “evasive” when asked if she had indeed tried to sell her baby, on outstanding warrants. She’ll be charged with attempted child selling, a class C felony in the state.