Man miffed with girlfriend, puts her baby on sale

10 Aug Times of India

In a bizarre case, a US man angry with his girlfriend for not paying enough attention to him, tried to sell her two-month-old daughter on a classified advertisements website for USD 100.

Paul Marquez, 23, of Staten Island, was arrested after posting an advertisement on Craigslist website twice last month, offering a "baby for sale" for USD 100,.

Marquez was charged with three misdemeanours for allegedly placing the ad under the "Baby and Kids" section of the site.

"I have a 2-month-old baby, she loves to play and have her little fun, but there's one problem," the ad read, according to WCBS. "Doctors say she has asthma and if she turns a certain way she can stop breathing. She's really getting on my nerves and I don't want her," he said.

The child is the daughter of a 19-year-old woman Marquez met online and dated a couple of times, Cornell reports.

Prosecutors allege the ads were an act of revenge because the woman did not spend more time with the suspect.

Court papers say Marquez admitted he "did all this to get back" at the child's mother.

The ad also included images of the baby and the baby's mother's phone number, according to court papers. The girl's mother told prosecutors at least one person called her and offered to buy her daughter. Marquez was arrested last Thursday and is being held on USD 1,000 bail.

He is charged with authority to place or board out children, harassment and endangering the welfare of a child. If convicted, he faced up to a year in prison.