22-Year-Old Accused of Trying to Sell Baby on Craigslist
A man from Staten Island, New York was arrested for trying to sell a woman's two-month old on Craigslist for $100.
22-year-old Paul Marquez was taken into custody for allegedly posting ads on Craiglist offering to sell a baby for cash because the child took too much time from the woman he was seeing.
"Heyy I have a 2 month old baby name [withheld] 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," Marquez wrote on the site.
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The ad was posted in the "baby+kids" section on July 29, but was flagged and taken down. The next day he reposted, and that is when it stayed up long enough to garner attention, according to the Staten Island Advance.
Two calls were made to the 121st Precinct of the NYPD, and their Computer Crime Squad was notified to track down the origin of the message after Child's Services was informed reports the Staten Island Advance.
Marquez met the woman online, and went out on a few dates with the woman. He acquired the picture of the infant after exchanging the picture for one of his own daughter, a two-year-old, sources told the local paper.
Reports say Marquez posted the Craigslist ad as a means to get back at the woman, and even posted her number for the calls. The woman told detectives she received a call from someone offering to buy the baby.
"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 to police. He also said the woman spent all of her time with the baby and working, and that he wanted to spend more time with her.
Marquez will return to court on Tuesday and if found guilty can spend up to a year in jail for 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," according to Daniel Donovan of the District Attorney's office.
