Baseball Player's Wife Admits Stealing Baby

The wife of Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Jose Tabata has pleaded guilty to kidnapping a baby after faking her own pregnancy. Amalia Tabata-Pereira, 44, faces life in prison for impersonating an immigration officer and pressuring a young couple at a health clinic into surrendering their 2-month-old child last year, reports the St. Petersburg Times.

She had kept up the pregnancy ruse while her husband, about 20 years her junior, traveled on the road with the Pirates minor league team. (He's now in the majors.) When she successfully snatched the baby, she told him she had given birth and very nearly got away with it. But the day after Tabata came home and met with his wife and daughter, his wife called 911 and turned herself in. "This news was one of the hardest blows I have had in my life," he said.
(More Jose Tabata stories.)