Police: Dad smuggles baby in plastic bag out of hospital

William Pitts | Arizona Republic

Show Caption Hide Caption See dad smuggle newborn out of hospital in shopping bag Hospital surveillance video shows a father smuggling his 2-day-old daughter out of a maternity ward. The baby was born with meth, morphine and marijuana in her system.

Glendale police in Arizona have arrested Jason Matthew Bristol after they say he smuggled his 2-day-old daughter out of Banner Thunderbird Medical Center.

The girl was born with traces of morphine, marijuana and methamphetamine in her system, police say. She was brought to the hospital after being born at home.

Police say the parents concocted a scheme to kidnap the baby before the state could take her away from them.

Surveillance video shows Bristol calmly walking down the hallway with a shopping bag. There's no audio, but the hospital says maternity-ward alarms, designed to go off when someone takes a baby, were blaring.

Police say Bristol's daughter was in the plastic bag with a blanket over her face.

When the alarm goes off, the entire unit goes into lockdown.

A hospital security expert tells the Arizona Republic that systems used to keep track of babies have been in place for years.

"It's akin to the shoplifting tags that are used by department stores, it's a similar technology," said Steve Kaufer with Inter/Action Associates, Inc. out of Palm Springs, Calif. "So it sounds like the hospital was equipped with the proper technology and the hospital personnel did the proper things."

Nurses did come to investigate, but found no baby. They didn't know the girl was in the plastic bag. One waved a security card to deactivate the alarms.

Bristol is then seen on the surveillance video heading out the door.

Police say he made it all the way home before he was caught.

According to court documents, Bristol told cops he was a meth addict and knew that CPS was going to take the baby away from him and the mother, but he thought the plastic bag was just fine to carry a baby, and the blanket was just to keep her warm.

He's charged with child abuse and drug possession.