Florida mother arrested after trying to sell 18-month-old daughter for $500, police say
PALATKA, Fla. (Gray News) – A woman in Florida is facing several charges after reportedly trying to sell her baby.
According to the Palatka Police Department, Jessica Woods, 33, was arrested last week after a worker at an area business said Woods left her daughter with them after attempting to sell the child.
Police said the worker notified them about the incident on March 5.
According to authorities, Woods was loitering around the worker’s place of employment before the unidentified worker asked the mother if she or her child needed any help.
Woods reportedly told the worker that she didn’t need anything but offered to sell her daughter for $500. When they refused to purchase the toddler, Woods allegedly walked away and left her daughter behind.
The worker then brought the child to the Palatka Police Department and told them what happened.
Police and the department’s victim advocate program took care of the child until the Department of Children and Families took custody.
Officers said they located Woods on March 7 and took her into custody. She was booked into the Putnam County Jail on charges that included child neglect and abandonment and three counts of child abuse.
Woods’ 18-month-old has since been placed in foster care.
Florida mom tried selling daughter to stranger for $500, then abandoned the baby, police say
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A Florida mother is in jail after offering to sell her 18-month-old daughter to an employee of a local business for $500, and abandoning the baby once the worker refused, police say.
The 33-year-old woman is charged with aggravated child abuse, child neglect, abandonment of a child and selling or surrendering a minor for money or property, according to Putnam County court records.
The woman was loitering around the business in Palatka, a city in Florida about 55 miles from Daytona Beach, on March 5 with her young daughter, Palatka police said Wednesday in a news release. She had been hanging around the business for a few days, according to police.
An “anonymous citizen” employed at the local business began speaking to the mother that day and asked if she and her daughter needed assistance, police said. The woman told the individual she did not need help, but then offered to sell her daughter to them for $500, according to Palatka police’s release.
When the employee declined the mother’s offer, the mother walked away and left her daughter behind, police said.
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What happened to the baby girl?
The employee would pick up the woman’s daughter and take her to Palatka police headquarters where the department’s victim advocate cared for the baby until the Department of Children and Families took custody of her, according to the police’s release.
The woman’s baby is now in foster care, police said.
Palatka police found and arrested the woman on March 7, according to the release. The woman is in Putnam County jail with a $255,000 bond, court records show.
An order of no contact was signed off on in court prohibiting the woman from seeing or reaching out to her alleged victim, but court records did not disclose if that was her daughter.
It’s unclear if the woman has an attorney.
