ORANGE PARK Fla. -- The plot thickens in the case of a grandfather who allegedly tried to sell his three-month-old grandson for a snack.
Police and the State Attorney's Office seem to believe the grandfather was joking. They say the reason he was going door to door at the Rodeway Inn was because he was simply searching for the baby boy's mother, 32-year-old Jaime Rathje and her other four-year-old daughter.
Rathje was arrested on unrelated traffic charges at the Hospitality Inn on the Westside on Monday night.
"Based on what we saw in the video, based on what we found, we obviously are very concerned about the safety of the children and thank goodness that these children were located," said DCF spokesperson John Harrell.
According to DCF, this mother was on the run. Police told Action News that Rathje had been hopping from hotel to hotel for the last two months, avoiding an existing DCF shelter order for her children.
"We still need to investigate this case and find out what the living situation was for the children in this family, what the family situation had been," said Harrell.
Action News has learned that the infant and his sister have been placed in foster care together, DCF says they are doing just fine. "They're currently in our care we want to make sure to keep these siblings together," said Harrell.
Action News also learned that Rathje has two other children by a separate father. They were not with her in the motel. DCF is investigating those cases as well.
DCF says their investigation is ongoing so they couldn't tell us why they sought protective orders for the children in the first place
