A Central Florida couple has been pleading for a child they believe is theirs, claming the baby was stolen by a Jacksonville woman hired to be their surrogate mother. Tom and Gwyn Lamintina said they hired the woman to have their baby, but that the woman has refused to give them the child.
The couple said they have an empty room, complete with a crib, where they were expecting to welcome a second child into their home.
Instead, the right to bring home the baby will likely be settled in court.
The Lamintinas said they're being extorted and defrauded by Jacksonville surrogate mother.
"My biggest fear is that I won't be able to bring her home. It's so hard," Gwyn Lamintina said.
She and her husband have one child through a surrogate. T.J. has a different mother, and the couple said everything went smoothly the first time.
"I just hope -- I pray everything would work out," Tom Lamintina said.
The surrogate mother lives on the Westside. She wouldn't comment but referred Channel 4 to her lawyer Kelly Hanson.
Hanson said under the laws of the state of Florida, surrogacy is like adoption -- the Surrogate mother has the option to keep the baby.
The Lamintinas dispute that and also pointed that out the surrogate mother cashed the $1,500 deposit they gave her to have the baby.
"We didn't think anyone would be that low to scam someone with a baby out of money," Tom Lamintina said.
A DNA test returned results that there is a 99.9 percent chance Tom Lamintina is the father of the child and the egg is from the surrogate mother.
However, the surrogate never signed the surrogacy contract. The Lamintinas said they never checked because they trusted her.
The family said it's now trusting in faith.
"I have been praying a lot and have a lot of people praying for me, and it's going to be all right," Tom Lamintina said.
The couple said they were not sure if the baby has been born but they suspect the birth took place sometime last week. They said they found the surrogate mother on a surrogacy Web site.
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