'Give me my baby back': Mum's horror as woman tries to kidnap baby at Target

A mother has told of how she begged a stranger to bring her baby back after the woman allegedly tried to kidnap her nine-month-old while shopping at Target.

Rachel Youngs was in the baby section of the Kansas store last Friday, pushing a shopping cart with her baby girl inside, when an unknown woman with a dog approached her and struck up a conversation.

The shopper said the woman initially seemed friendly and remarked on how cute her baby Waverly was, she told Fox 4 News Kansas affiliate WDAF-TV.

“She made a comment saying, ‘I’ll trade you my dog for your baby,’ and I thought she was just joking,” Ms Youngs said.

“Just was super, super nice and she went to the front of my cart and asked me if she could hold my daughter. And she starts taking her out of the car seat, and she hands me her dog.”

The Kansas mum said she allowed the kind stranger hold her baby, but immediately regretted it when the conversation took a “weird” turn.

“As she’s holding my baby she started saying weird things, she starts asking me, ‘do you have a godmother?’ I said no, and she said, ‘I’d love to be your godmother, I’ll split everything 50/50’,” the mum explained.

“And I was like this is kind of weird, like, who says this to a random person?”

Rachel Youngs said she shouted to the stranger in Target to bring her baby back, before the woman hesitated for a moment. Source: Fox 4 News Kansas/WDAF-TVShe was further alarmed when the stranger revealed she had recently been arrested for attempted kidnapping, before walking off with the little girl.

“I yelled to her, I said, ‘I need my baby back!’” Ms Youngs said.

She said the stranger hesitated for a moment, then handed the baby back to her.

Ms Youngs asked Target employees to call the police, but when officers arrived they told her they were powerless to take the incident further as she gave permission for the woman to hold her child.

Police have told local reporters they know who the woman in question is and are investigating the incident.