A 6-month-old girl was kidnapped on Thursday in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district but safely returned to her parents the same day after being found in a rubbish bin, local authorities said yesterday.

Mak Hong the Sen Sok district police chief, said that suspect Yin Sotheara, 33, abandoned the infant in a plastic bag, then rode off on a motorbike, only to be later caught by police.

“We found her and arrested her.”

Teuk Thla commune chief Tan Navin said the suspect was a “close friend” and neighbour of the parents of the abducted child, who was found about 40 minutes after police were alerted she was missing.

“She put the baby next to the rubbish bin and the ants bit her. The suspect taped shut the baby’s mouth and bound the feet to not let the baby move,” he said, adding that the infant is “fine now”.

According to Navin, the suspect took the child from the upstairs room of a home while the parents were having dinner downstairs. The parents, he continued, immediately contacted the authorities once they noticed their child was missing.

Navin said that while Sotheara has confessed, police were tight-lipped about the motive.

Meanwhile, district chief Hong said Sotheara is being charged with attempted murder rather than kidnapping and her case will be sent to court today.

“She made so many excuses for doing it,” he said, before refusing to elaborate.