A Delaware woman is currently being brought up on charges that she allegedly tried to sell her one-month old son. Bridget Wismer, 33, is accused of trying to sell her baby to a friend in Philadelphia for $15,000.
Woman wanted trip to Disney World
A woman in Delaware, according to ABC, has been charged with trying to sell her one-month-old infant to a friend, reportedly because she wanted to go on a trip to Disney World rather than raise her newborn son. Bridget Wismer, a 33-year-old mother of three, has been charged in New Castle, Del., with a second-degree conspiracy charge and “dealing in children.”
Her co-conspirator, 54-year-old John Gavaghan of Philadelphia, faces the same charges. Both could receive seven years in prison.
Unemployed woman wanted better home for child
Wismer is unemployed and lives with her mother. She stated that the incident was simply a misunderstanding. Wismer claims that Gavaghan is a close friend, and that he was simply helping her in raising the child to “give the baby a life that I couldn’t give because of my situation.”
Police were alerted in September by Wismer’s grandmother, who told police about the arrangement. Gavaghan and Wismer drafted and signed documents establishing a payment schedule and other arrangements, including that Gavaghan would be added to the birth certificate as the child’s father. The child’s biological father has not been identified.
Police followed Gavaghan to the Delaware Park Racetrack in Stanton, Del. He was seen signing documents in his car and giving cash to a woman in September. The documents were later found to be related to the sale of one-month-old Christian. According to the Daily Mail, a New Castle police officer clarified: “You can’t sell a baby in Delaware.” The child is currently in foster care.
Disturbing trend
There have been numerous incidents of people trying to sell children within the past year. A woman was arrested in August for trying to sell her baby at a Taco Bell for $500 in Vancouver, Wash., according to KPTV, a Fox affiliate. An English woman was sentenced in May to seven years in prison for trying to sell her 11-month-old baby to a “childless couple” last September for 35,000 pounds or about $54,000, according to The Guardian. The buyers were undercover reporters, and they alerted police.
Two people, Samantha Tomasini and Patrick Fousek, were arrested last year for trying to sell their baby outside a Walmart for $25, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Fousek wound up being beaten by inmates after being jailed. According to The Telegraph, a Romanian couple was arrested in Spain for soliciting random women on the street in Alcantarilla, a town in the Murcia region on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. They were trying to sell their baby for 5,000 euros or about $6,700.
Sources
ABC: http://abcnews.go.com/US/woman-charged-selling-baby-15k/story?id=14673329
Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2045405/Unemployed-mother-arrested-trying-SELL-baby-friend–15-000.html
KPTV: http://www.kptv.com/story/15091529/deputies-mom-arrested-for-trying-to-sell-baby-at-taco-bell
The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/may/27/baby-for-sale-mother-jailed
San Francisco Chronicle: http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-06-27/bay-area/21928012_1_dispensaries-mehserle-trial-california-digest
The Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/8495718/Couple-arrested-in-Spain-for-trying-to-sell-their-baby-for-5000-euros.html
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