Adam Joseph Wedig sneaks into MercyOne Des Moines hospital ICU to bottle feed newborn baby while pretending to be child’s father before leaving. Suspect revealed to have prior criminal record.
Did he know the parents? The newborn? Did he have ulterior motives? These are some of the questions an Iowa local community are asking following the arrest of a 36 year old man who snuck into a hospital last month to bottle feed a newborn baby.
Adam Joseph Wedig is accused of illegally entering an intensive care unit for newborns at Des Moines hospital, MercyOne. While pretended to be the newborn child’s father, the man proceeded to bottle feed the infant before eventually leaving according to Des Moines Police Facebook release.
Of disconcert, police said at the time of the man’s arrest, Wedig was booked on a parole violation. It remained unclear what crime the man previously committed.
The episode which unnerved hospital staff according to cited court records is alleged to have taken place on Dec 27, KCAU reported. Not immediately clear is how the trespasser was able to make his way into the ICU unit?
While the child was not hurt or harmed in any way. The episode led to cops searching for a motive.
Revamping of hospital policies and measures
‘This is certainly an alarming and unsettling incident,’ the police release stated.
Adding, ‘Detectives did determine that there was no intent to cause the infant harm.’
Police previously released hospital surveillance video stills showing a man wearing nondescript clothing and work boots and a face mask walking through the ICU unit. The man’s identity was revealed after the images were disseminated with the public, police said.
The episode which could have gone drastically wrong led to MercyOne hospital administrators releasing a statement promising to make changes at the hospital.
‘MercyOne takes the safety and security of our patients and families very seriously,’ the hospital said according to lawandcrime. ‘The incident that took place last month is extremely troubling. We are actively cooperating with the Des Moines Police Department on this ongoing investigation and have conducted an internal investigation into the matter, which prompted several changes to our policies and protocols to expand our security and prevent this from occurring in the future.’
The hospital said it also planned to ‘re-educate’ staffers about security protocols, to increase identification checks and visitor-sign in procedures at hospital entrances, to implement other “enhanced” security measures, and to beef up staffing levels in nurseries and around the neonatal intensive care unit.
Wedig remains held at the Polk County Jail on two counts of criminal trespassing and on an ‘unrelated’ parole violation according to online records.
