People have done some crazy things to get their hands on a new iPhone. Some will wait in line for hours, while others will buy them at an inflated price. In China, however, one couple took this obsession with the Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) device to a new extreme -- they resorted to “auctioning” off their unborn child in exchange for cash.
The couple, identified by Chinese media only as “Mr. Teng and Ms. Zhang”, is now standing trial in a Shanghai court for allegedly selling their baby and using the money earned to finance a shopping “iSpree” which included purchasing an iPhone and some other luxury items. According to Shanghai’s local newspaper Jiefang Daily, the unemployed couple posted advertisements for their child earlier this June before the baby was born. The ads reportedly said they would be willing to give up their child for 50,000 Yuan, or $8,200.
The Telegraph reported that prosecutors in the case claimed that the couple concealed the woman’s pregnancy so as not to arouse suspicions among strangers or even people who knew them. The pregnant woman reportedly told her neighbors that she had a “tumor,” which explained the bump in her stomach. In order to avoid confrontation at a hospital or with officials, the couple planned for a home birth, and handed over their baby daughter to an anonymous buyer and received their payment directly into their bank account on the same day as the birth.
Now, in court, the couple is claiming that in selling the child they acted upon their daughter’s “best interest,” citing that they did not have steady incomes and would have difficulty caring for the child. They hoped that by selling her, the baby would be placed in the hands of a stable home and the chance of getting a good education. “We did not give the baby away for money but in order to give it more security,” the couple reportedly said.
But prosecutors are not buying their story. Looking into the couple’s bank records, authorities believe that transactions show that they were executing a “sinister conspiracy” to generate profit from the child. Indeed, according to the report, one credit card bill showed that large amounts of money were spent on an online shopping binge immediately after the “trade” for the girl was completed. Among the purchases were an Apple iPhone and a pair of “high-end” sneakers.
This, unfortunately, is not the first time people have done extreme “trades” for an Apple product. According to state-run Xinhua News Agency, last year a 17-year-old boy in central China’s Hunan province sold his kidney to earn enough money to buy an iPhone and an iPad. The case was discovered after the teenager confessed to his mother after he began feeling pain due to renal failure after the organ was extracted.