With all these babies for sale on the World Wide Web, what’s the
point of going through nine months of back pain and swollen feet? You can become a proud parent with just a few clicks of the mouse!
Be forewarned, however, that the latest infant up for sale is a bit pricier
than the tot offered for one-euro on Ebay recently. An “unexpected” but “very
cute” and “very healthy” seven-day-old was listed for sale for $10,000 on Craiglist last week. A woman
searching Craigslist to buy more standard fare—concert tickets? an
armoir?—alerted the cops to the disturbing posting, and police tracked the poster to an apartment in Vancouver. And by “tracked,”
I mean they looked up the phone number that was listed with the ad. The baby was placed in protective custody.
But don’t worry, folks. Bethany Granholm, the baby's mother, “guaranteed” the
concerned public that the baby’s father, 26-year-old Jeremy Pete, was only
joking when he posted the ad. Sure, the 23-year-old mother conceded, he was being “a bit of dick” (ladies, I think we all know how that
goes! Like, do they ever grow up?!). But it was all for shits and giggles. Besides, Granholm hung up on the one caller who responded to the ad--now that is a
scary, scary thought. “This has turned out to be one of the biggest mistakes
he [Pete] has made in his life,” Granholm said, leaving the public to wonder if Mr. Pete
had ever accidentally set a children’s museum on fire.
The story is not without a silver lining, however, which is
that Granholm seems genuinely desperate to have her baby returned to her, and is
considering cutting off Pete’s involvement in the baby’s life. Both Granholm and
Pete have had drug problems in the past, but Granholm says she’s been
clean since she got pregnant. “She [the baby]
is the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” she said. Meanwhile, a tearful
Pete, who has a three-month-old son with another woman, assured the press, "I never believed I was putting my daughter in harm’s way. Because, you know,
she was here and secure with us.”
Should baby Beverly be returned to the custody of her
parents?
Photo: Arlen Redekop/Canwest News Service
