Infant snatched from KZN shops after mother leaves her with ‘kind woman’

Newcastle detectives have launched a national appeal for information, and are currently searching for a woman in her forties.

Newcastle police are on the hunt for a woman who kidnapped a baby girl from a prayer session at a shopping complex in KwaZulu-Natal last week, Zululand Observer reports.

Detective Constable TP Mthimkhulu says members of the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit were called by a frantic young mother, who had briefly left her seven-month old daughter with a ‘kind woman’ while she bought a sandwich.

“The mother went to a shopping complex at Osizweni Township to buy groceries, with her baby,” said SAPS spokesman Colonel Thembeka Mbhele.

“She stopped at a store to listen to a preacher delivering a public sermon, and a woman approached her, offering to carry her baby while the mother bought a sandwich.

“When she came back, the woman and the baby girl, named Lungelo – had both disappeared.”

He said a case of kidnapping has been opened.

The kidnapper is described as being in her forties, with a dark complexion.

She was wearing a black leather jacket and a white skirt.

“We are asking that anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of little Lungelo contact us urgently,” said Mbhele.

https://www.geezgo.com/sps/34349