A Canadian baby taken just hours after being born was returned to her mother Tuesday, and police are thanking social media site Facebook.
Pictures of the kidnapped baby and the suspect were posted to Facebook from an Amber Alert, and a Quebec woman recognized the suspect as her neighbor. The woman and her friends alerted police to the abductor's location, and remained on the scene until authorities arrived.
The baby girl, Victoria, was taken from Ville-Marie Medical Center in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec on Monday evening by a woman wearing hospital scrubs. The woman claimed she was taking the baby to be weighed, but wrapped the newborn in a blanket and left the hospital in a red Toyota Yaris hatchback.
After the kidnapping was discovered, Canadian police issued an Amber Alert, and the suspect and baby's photos were circulated online, along with a description of the suspect's car.
Mélizanne Bergeron saw the photos on Facebook, and showed them to her friend, Charlene Plante. They, along with friends Marc-Andre Cote and Sharelle Bergeron, decided to search for the suspect's vehicle, when Plante recognized the suspect as a 21-year-old woman from her neighborhood.
The friends drove to the kidnapper's house and alerted police to the location. When an officer emerged from the apartment with the baby unharmed, the Facebook friends began to cry. The rescue was captured on a cell phone video.
"It was the best moment in my life," Mélizanne Bergeron told the Associated Press.
Three hours after the abduction, baby Victoria was back in the hospital with her parents, Melissa McMahon and Simon Boisclair. The mother expressed thanks to the four rescuers on Facebook Tuesday, and described the range of emotions she had been through.
"It was hard for us to stay positive given the circumstances... all of Quebec was supporting us and three hours later we experienced the happiest moment of our lives. I didn't even dare imagine such a perfect ending," McMahon wrote.
The unidentified suspect is expected to be charged with kidnapping.
