American tech giant Apple has been known to cause quite a craze, with people bunking outside of their stores days before the release of a product just so they could they could get their hands on it first.
But this Chinese couple took things a step further when they sold their 18-day-old daughter online so they could buy an iPhone. Once the father discovered that it was possible to sell the baby, he did so without the mother’s consent.
The father was from the Fujian province of Tong’an in south eastern China, and besides the iPhone, he also wanted to buy a motorcycle.
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According to the People’s Daily Online, he met his buyer through the social media network QQ; he sold baby for 23,000 Yuan (roughly Php 164,000).
While the mother busied herself working many part-time jobs, the father spent his time at internet cafés. The couple was both 19 when they had conceived, and the presence of their daughter caused a strain in their financial state.
After the sale of her baby, the mother, distraught, fled Tong’an to start a new life. She helps in raising her younger brother in middle school as well as taking care of her parents because they suffer disabilities.
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The police tracked her down after her baby’s buyer turned himself in.
She was eventually handed a two-and-a-half year suspended sentence, while the baby’s father was given three years in jail, the judge having reduced their penalties after taking into consideration their difficult circumstances.
“I myself was adopted, and many people in my hometown send their kids to other people to raise them,” she reportedly told the police. “I really didn’t know that it was illegal.”
Not an isolated case
In China, an estimated 200,000 boys and girls are kidnapped in every year and sold openly online.
The unnamed buyer bought the baby for his sister. Because the parents are in no position to raise a child, the buyer’s sister still has the baby until the police determines the best course of action.
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