Girls, 10 and 12, arrested for kidnapping baby

US DETECTIVES have arrested a 12-year-old girl and her 10-year-old sister for allegedly abducting their neighbour’s one-year-old son and demanding $200,000 (€147,000) for his return.

Brandon Wells was safe back at home in Enid, Oklahoma, hours after the two children broke into his family’s residence and took him while his mother, Sheila Wells, slept, police said.

“I’ve been doing this for 18 years, and this is the first time I know of when a 10 and a 12-year-old kidnapped a one-year-old,” police Capt Dean Grassino said. “It definitely ranks up there with the unusual crimes.”

The siblings are accused of sneaking into Wells’ home, taking Brandon and leaving a ransom note: “If you want to see your son again, then you won’t call police and report him missing and you will leave $200,000 on the sofa tonight and we will return your son back safe,” the note read, according to police and was signed, “the kidnappers”.

The plan began to unravel when the girls’ mother saw them with the child, police said. They told her they found the boy on the corner.

As the girls’ mother tried to find Sheila Wells’ telephone number, the 12-year- old returned to Wells’ residence and told her it was the younger sister who was responsible for the abduction, Grassino said.

Ms Wells immediately retrieved her child from the girls’ home and police were called.

Ms Wells said she knew the girls and had banned the 10-year-old girl from her home a few weeks earlier, but did not say why.

The girls appeared in Garfield County District Court and were taken to Community Intervention Centre for juveniles. They have not been formally charged.

“I know they’re so young, but they need to learn from their mistakes,” Ms Wells said.