Just a few words of dating advice: the key to a woman’s heart isn’t won by selling her baby on the Internet.
According to the Staten Island Advance, 22-year-old Paul Marquez attempted to sell a woman’s two-month-old baby girl on Craigslist because she was taking too much of her mother’s free time.
“Heyy I have a 2 month old baby name [redacted] she loves to play nd have her little fun but there is only 1 problem, the doctor said that she has asthma nd if she turns a certain way she can stop breathing, she’s really getting on my nerves nd I don’t want her Please email me,” the advertisement read.
The Staten Island resident posted the ad not once, but twice, and even sent out the woman’s number to an interested buyer. The police were quickly notified after the second ad was posted, and Marquez was later arrested in his apartment complex.
A Victoria’s Secret stock-room worker, Marquez took a break from sniffing women’s underwear to form an online relationship with the woman. The two allegedly went on a few dates. Marquez obtained the photo of her child by exchanging a photo of his own two-year-old daughter, from a previous relationship. He posted the ad because she was too focused on the baby and had no time to spend with him.
“The reason why I decided to put this post (up) was because I got bored and wanted to get a little laugh and a little kick out of it,” Marquez said, according to Staten Island Advance sources.
Marquez faces misdemeanor charges of second-degree aggravated harassment, endangering the welfare of a child, and two counts of a social services law violation called “authority to place or board out children.” If convicted, Marquez could face a year in jail.
Authorities are still attempting to identify the caller who tried to buy the baby.