Another baby goes up for sale...this time on Craigslist

For sale: Week-old baby, $10,000.

A B.C. grandmother was browsing the popular classifieds website Craigslist last Friday when she came across the shocking ad that prompted her to call police. "A new baby girl, seven days old, healthy and very cute," read the ad. "Can't afford and unexpected. Looking for a good home. Please call ASAP."

Within hours of her call, officers tracked the number of a stolen cellphone listed in the ad to an apartment in downtown Vancouver.

When officers arrived, they found four adults inside, including the 26-year-old father and the 23-year-old mother breastfeeding the baby. Police didn't identify the couple.

"Of course, the first thing out of their mouth is, they said it was just a hoax," Const. Tim Fanning, of the Vancouver Police Department, told a news conference on Tuesday.

"Only they know whether it was truly a hoax or not. If they had a viable bite from somebody that came, who knows what could have happened."

The baby's parents were initially arrested and later released, though police say they are still contemplating charges.

The baby was removed from the home, but the provincial children's minister wouldn't say where the child was Tuesday.

The woman who first came across the ad said she was horrified when she saw it, even though she assumed it was a fake.

"I was shaking, and I thought, 'Come on, how did this even get through?"' Marilyn Bateman, a 62-year-old grandmother of five living in Pitt Meadows, B.C., said in an interview.

"I said, well, somebody's got to do something, because what if it isn't (a fake)? Because if it is a hoax, somebody needs their wrist slapped."

Bateman, who was looking for furniture, phoned police and e-mailed them the ad, then left it at that.

"I was in bed, late, and a phone call came in from another detective saying that the girl was safe," she said. "And I went, 'Oh my gosh, thank God."'

Both parents were initially placed under arrest.

Fanning said the baby's mother was released at the scene. The father, who is from Port Coquitlam, B.C., was held on charges of mischief but later released without charges.

The baby was removed from the home by a special police unit that includes a social worker, and provincial authorities have now taken over the case, said Fanning.

The province's minister of children and family development, Tom Christensen, said he couldn't comment about the baby's whereabouts due to privacy laws.