Girl fakes pregnancy, kidnaps baby

Houstonist was starting to think it was going to be a ho-hum, weird news-free day — but then we ran across the story of a girl who faked her own pregnancy, then kidnapped a baby. No, really.

The girl is 17-year-old Jennifer Ruiz, a Katrina evacuee who told her family and her boyfriend she was pregnant. On Thursday, Ruiz visited a fellow Katrina evacuee who let her spend the night ad her apartment after Ruiz said she was tired. When the mother woke up Friday, Ruiz and the mother's 5-month-old son were gone. The woman called the police, who found Ruiz and the baby in the apartment she shared with her boyfriend and his parents. Ruiz was arrested and faces kidnapping charges; the baby was returned safely to his mom.

So the odd thing about this — other than the part about kidnapping the baby — is that Ruiz wasn't pregnant at all. In fact, she wore balloons under her clothes to fool her family and friends; when Ruiz was arrested, one of the balloons reportedly fell out of her shirt and "drifted to the ground." All of which really raises some questions in Houstonist's mind ... you know, like how her family (and boyfriend!) never noticed that she was stuffing balloons in her clothes or how she explained it when she showed up with a 5-month-old kid ("He was born this way!"). We hope there are more details to come.