A woman was arrested Monday on suspicion of kidnapping after she allegedly posed as a Garden Grove Medical Center employee and stole a newborn girl from a mother's hospital room, police said.
The suspect was identified Monday evening as 48-year-old Grisel Ramirez, of Garden Grove, according to Sgt. William Allison with Garden Grove Police Department.
The woman -- who was wearing scrubs and possibly a visitor's pass -- walked into the mother's room on the fifth floor and told the patient the doctor would be right in, said Jeff Nightengale of the Garden Grove Police Department.
The suspect told the woman, "'Why don't you take a shower,' or something to that effect," Nightengale said.
"The mother got up, went into the shower, and when that happened, she took the newborn and put her inside the tote bag," Nightengale said.
When the alleged kidnapper left the room, a monitoring device on the baby girl triggered an alarm.
"An alert employee at the hospital heard the alarm go off, confronted her, stopped her, detained her until we arrived at the location," Nightengale said.
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The baby was not injured and has since been reunited with her mother, Nightengale said.
The incident happened shortly after 10 a.m. Monday at Garden Grove Medical Center, located at 12601 Garden Grove Blvd., police said.
Earlier in the day, police said Ramirez -- a 20-year resident of Garden Grove -- was being uncooperative.
"(She) lived in the United States for 20 years, but we don't think that she's a legal resident of the country," Nightengale said.
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