Beijing police dismiss alleged child abduction case, parents file appeal

Beijing police dismissed a child-snatching case that the baby's parents called an abduction on Saturday in response to a viral Weibo post that criticized the police as negligent.

Beijing police confirmed on its official Weibo account that a woman involved in the incident, surnamed Li, had mistaken the baby for her grandson, after receiving an appeal from the baby's parents to review the case.

The incident immediately caught public attention on Weibo, a microblogging platform, on Thursday after Weibo user "@liuyuedeyuzainali", apparently the baby's father, said he was disappointed in how local police handled the case.

In the lengthy and emotional post, the man recalled in full detail how his wife got their 11-month-son back from three women who allegedly snatched the baby. The women, who were held for five days in administrative detention, will be released because local police officers refused to treat the case as a kidnapping.

The father wrote that the three women approached his wife and their baby, who was in a stroller, when she was waiting for the elevator at a shopping mall in Beijing's Fengtai District on Tuesday morning.

During the incident, one of the women, who was later identified as a 39-year-old from North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, said to the mother, "Your boy is so handsome," and suddenly tried to snatch him from the stroller, only to be stopped by the child's safety harness, the father said. When his wife tried to intervene, the two other women, both in their 60s and from Tianjin, got involved and easily overpowered her.

Despite the safety harness the trio still were able to pull the baby out of the stroller. "They're stealing my baby! Call the police," the mother screamed. The fracas caused a stir at the store and a male employee rushed to help. The baby was returned to his mother.

After the police arrived, the three women, along with another woman, surnamed Li and also linked to the incident, were taken into custody.

When the couple went to a police station in Fengtai District on Tuesday afternoon, they were told that Li claimed that she mistook the baby as her grandson and cited that as the reason for the incident.

The police also told the couple that the four women will be released after a five-day detention for "disrupting public order" and will not face criminal charges, according to the post, which appeared to be backed by images of police punishment notices.

Hearing this, the couple were shocked and dismayed. "This is Beijing, the capital city. If this is how things are handled here, I can only imagine what could be happening in other places!" The father, erupting in anger, wrote in the post.

Weibo users have been closely following the development.

The father then posted updates on Weibo, saying the couple have filed an appeal with the Fengtai district police bureau to review the case. This post on Friday attracted more than 7,000 comments and 19,000 likes.

Ahead of Saturday's response, Beijing police said on Friday that its Fengtai district bureau has received the appeal and is seriously reviewing the case.