Canadian teens find kidnapped infant and alleged fake-nurse abductor through Facebook

Twitter/Mathieu Papillon

Canadian teens find kidnapped infant and alleged fake-nurse abductor through Facebook
(Image credit: Twitter/Mathieu Papillon)

On Monday night, a woman dressed as a nurse walked into a maternity ward in a Quebec hospital and took a 16-hour-old infant from her mother, saying she need to weigh the newborn. Instead, police say, the woman walked outside to her Toyota Yaris, with a "Bébé à bord" (Baby on Board) sticker, and drove off. The parents, Mélissa McMahon and Simon Boisclair, feared for the worst; police in Trois-Rivieres issued an Amber Alert.

The alert, and descriptions of the car, spread on social media. Four local teenagers got in their car to aid in the search. "We were on Facebook," Charlène Plante explained to Canada's CTV. "We just wanted to do something for the night, so we went out to find the car." When the police released a security-camera photo of the suspected baby-snatcher and it started spreading on Facebook, Plante recognized her as an old neighbor. And she knew where she lived.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.