Woman Busted Entering Maternity Ward—With a Doll

Cops fear she wanted to trade it for real baby
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 23, 2014 4:30 PM CDT
Woman Busted Entering Maternity Ward—With a Doll
A woman was arrested after trying to get into a maternity ward with a doll instead of a baby.   (Shutterstock)

A woman has been arrested for trespassing after she apparently tried to use baby dolls as her ticket to a maternity ward. Accompanied by an unidentified man, Tonya Whitney tried on two separate occasions to get into Mercy Medical Center Merced's area for newborns, police say, via the San Francisco Chronicle. "We’re very concerned that she could have snuck in there and swapped in the doll (for a real baby) and left," the Merced, Calif., police captain tells the paper—which notes, via KSFN, that the couple was "cooing" to the dolls and "changing their diapers."

Whitney's explanation to police: The 42-year-old wanted to sell dolls to the hospital to be used in training. But "any businessperson would know that the nurses in the maternity ward aren’t responsible for purchasing," the police captain says. Whitney begs to differ, telling KSFN that an ER nurse suggested she show the dolls to the maternity employees. As for questions over why she was wearing scrubs, "I've gained weight in the last couple months and that's basically all I had that fit," she says. (More arrest stories.)

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