A man in Duisburg, Germany has admitted listing his newborn baby daughter up for sale on auction site eBay, but claimed it was a joke, German police said.
The baby was listed for sale at a price of €5,000, with a description that read: “A small child, 40 days old and named Maria, for sale.”
The advert went viral on social media sites after being placed online, and this triggered eBay users to think it was a case of human trafficking, and therefore alerted the police who immediately launched an investigation.
The man’s home was raided by police, and the child was placed into care.
Police said following a probe, the girl’s father admitted that he was responsible and gave investigators the mobile phone he used to access eBay.
Police described the family as refugees, but did not give further details.
An eBay spokesman said in a statement that the site removed the listing as soon as it came to light.
“We received a lot of complaints from users and we immediately pursued the matter. In such a case, we provide the authorities with all available information,” he said.
Adding, “We immediately ban these providers. We have specially trained teams which keep track on such cases and quickly react.”