A heartbroken woman too afraid to tell her husband she had a miscarriage dressed as a nurse in a desperate bid to steal a newborn from the hospital.
Talita Meireles planned on taking another baby and raising it as her own, when she couldn't face telling her family the tragic news.
The 23-year-old was suffering from post natal depression after losing her child on Sunday, June 27.
Dressed as a nurse, she admitted to taking a baby from another mother on the ward and then tried to leave the hospital with the child in her arms.
The young woman, from Curtiba, Brazil told the police: "I lost my child. I just didn't want to tell my family. I didn't want to tell anyone.
"I really don't know what happened to me. I was desperate."
Asked where her husband was, she said he was travelling and then added: "I'm alone. I don't have anyone with me. I don't know what went through my head."
She said that she had lost her child a fortnight ago and added: "I went to look at the children.
"I started to look at them. I wanted to take one in my arms. And then everything happened. I didn't want to do anything bad."
She told the officers that she entered the maternity ward without being asked to sign in, as she reportedly arrived when staff were changing shifts.
She then spotted a nurse's uniform in a changing room and put it on in order to see the babies.
She found one child with its mother and said that she needed to take it for tests.
She was caught after she changed back out of the nurse's uniform, and staff noticed that she was not wearing a patient wristband while carrying the newborn.
The staff took the baby from Talita and handed it back to its mother before calling the police, who arrived on the scene and questioned her.
The hospital has since defended its security protocols, saying they were efficient in preventing the crime from taking place.
It was not reported if the suspect was taken into custody.
