A Houston woman placed an ad on Craigslist asking the internet to adopt her son. Attention, parents of children who were conceived during a Craigslist casual encounter: don't get any ideas from this! The woman has been arrested on misdemeanor charges.
Police found a well-intentioned but disturbing Craigslist ad seeking a better life for a three-year-old. "Hi. I'm trying to adopt out my 3yr old son. I'm not in a good place in my life and don't feel like I can care for him properly but I don't know where to start," the ad said. "If you or know anyone who is interested in caring for him please let me know. I'm a single mom and can't do this. Thanks, Desperate."
Craigslist was served a subpoena ordering the identity of the poster, KHOU reported, and the court documents traced it to 29-year-old Stephanie Christine Redus. She has been charged with advertising for placement of a child.
Houston police told CBS Houston that Redus claims to have never intended to go through with the adoption. She allegedly told police that she made the post because she had forgotten to take the medication she needs for her "mental ailments."
Internet adoptions are a common problem across the world--and in many cases, it is not the actual parents doing the adopting, but kidnappers. In India, thousands of children are sold on Facebook and other social media sites, and 90,000 children went missing in 2011 alone. GlobalPost's Jason Overdorf recently visited the homes of parents of the missing children and found that poor families are often duped into surrendering their child with the promise that he or she will be given a better life in a different city.