VIDEO: Baby snatched from mother’s shopping cart at supermarket 

An employee from a South African supermarket was caught on camera snatching an 8-month-old baby from the mother’s shopping cart. 

The shocking incident took place at a SuperSpar store in Alberton, outside Johannesburg last Sunday. 

Surveillance footage shared by the store shows the mother shopping with her 8-month-old daughter. The mom stops the cart in front of the fridge in the butcher's aisle and places the baby in the baby's seat. 

When the mother bends down to get something out of the refrigerator, an apron-wearing employee approaches the cart and picks up the baby, without the mother noticing. The 43-year-old employee starts walking away with the baby. 

Seconds later, the mother realizes that her daughter is gone and chases after the store employee who has her child. 

The footage shows the employee trying to explain his actions to the panicked mother, who is cradling her baby. 

“He is smiling and laughing, telling me he walked past the trolley and my daughter’s arms were up, so he picked her up,” the mother wrote in a now-deleted Facebook post. “I keep saying this is not funny. You don’t touch a child, you don’t take a child. This isn’t a joke, and I don’t find it amusing.”

Police arrested the man on attempted kidnapping charges, while the store suspended the employee. 

“While we are extremely relieved that a reported case of attempted baby snatching at the independently-owned Meyersdal SUPERSPAR was foiled on Monday, we confirm the store’s owner along with store management took the decision to immediately suspend one staff member as a result of the incident and will take further action based on the results of an ongoing investigation,” said supermarket spokesperson Kerry Becker.