A Texas woman has been arrested last week after allegedly attempting to buy a woman’s child at a Walmart store, police say.
Rebecca Lanette Taylor, 49, was arrested Tuesday and charged with sale or purchase of a child, a third-degree felony, according to jail records.
Taylor allegedly approached a woman who had her baby in a car seat and one-year-old son in a shopping cart at the self-checkout section of a Walmart in Crockett, about 120 miles north of Houston, on Jan. 13.
Taylor allegedly commented on the woman’s son’s blonde hair and blue eyes and asked “how much she could purchase him for,” according to the probable cause affidavit obtained by NBC News.
The mom “tried to laugh this comment off, thinking Taylor was joking. Taylor told her that she had $250,000 in the car and she would pay that much for him. (The mom) told her no amount of money would do,” the affidavit stated.
The mother told Taylor to stay away from her son.
“Taylor said that he was the perfect fit and she had been wanting to buy a baby for a long time now,” the affidavit said.
The mother told police that Taylor was with another woman, who asked what the child’s name was, but the mother did not disclose the name.
Somehow, the affidavit says, Taylor and the other woman knew the child’s name and they began “calling him by his name.”
The mother waited for the two women to leave the store before heading towards her car.
In the parking lot, Taylor allegedly began to scream at the mother, “saying if she wouldn’t take $250,000 for him, then she would give $500,000 because she wanted him and she was going to take him,” the affidavit said.
Once in the car, Taylor stood behind a black SUV next to the mother’s vehicle. Taylor kept saying she wanted the child and would pay $500,000 in cash for him, the affidavit said. Eventually she got into the black SUV and left.
Police said surveillance footage from the store matched the mother’s account.
The officer who wrote the affidavit went to Taylor’s residence to question her about the incident.
“She told me that she doesn’t like thieves, then she stated I could speak with her attorney and to get off her ‘precipice.’ She slammed the door shut,” the affidavit said.
According to jail records, as of Thursday she had bonded out of Houston County Jail. Efforts by NBC News to reach Taylor for comment were not immediately successful and it was not clear if she had retained an attorney.
If convicted, she faces a minimum of two years in jail and a maximum of 10 years, under Texas Penal Code, and could face a fine of up to $10,000.
Source: NBC News