SANFORD, Fla. -- A 39-year-old woman changed into medical scrubs Friday and abducted a 1-day-old boy from a busy Central Florida hospital in what police said was apparently a "rare" random abduction.

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IMAGES: Images Of Latham | Baby Images

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Jennifer Latham, 39, of Sanford, entered a secure hospital unit at Central Florida Regional Hospital located at 1401 W. Seminole Blvd. in Sanford Friday and managed to smuggle the child out in a tote bag, according to investigators.

Witnesses said she was posing as an employee.

"We have her on video changing into hospital scrubs and she was able to go in posing as a hospital employee," Sanford Police Chief Brian Tooley said.

Latham was arrested a short time later after being pulled over by police on Interstate 4 in nearby Lake Mary.

"Witnesses were brought to the scene by Sanford police investigators and the woman was positively identified as the woman in the hospital video who did in fact take this 1-day-old child," Tooley said.

Police said Latham initially tried to take another child but was confronted by the child's parents.

"It does appear that it could be a stranger abduction, which is very, very rare," said Darrel Presley, deputy chief of the Sanford Police Department near Orlando.

Officials at Central Florida Regional Hospital initially alerted police of the abduction around 1:45 p.m. after hospital alarms indicated the child had been removed from the newborn unit, Presley said.

The hospital was immediately locked down as officials searched the grounds, but the woman was apparently able to slip by security because she had the child hidden in a bag, he said.

"We believe at this point she had a large blue tote bag that she may have actually placed the child inside," Presley said. "And she just apparently walked out."

Presley said hospital staff acted appropriately and quickly.

"But in just those few minutes that it takes to gather the information and disseminate it, she was able to walk from the maternity ward through the exit and then depart the hospital," he said.

Authorities initially believed they were looking for two women because the suspect wore street clothes into the hospital, then changed into a scrub-like shirt in an apparent attempt to blend in, Presley said.

Police in the nearby town of Lake Mary pulled over a vehicle at about 3 p.m. that matched a description of the vehicle witnesses described Latham driving, he said. The baby was found inside unharmed and has been returned to the hospital and reunited with the parents.

Hospital spokesman Craig Bair said the child was wearing a device that set off an alarm when the infant was taken outside the secure unit.

"We're still putting together the facts," Bair said.

"The child is OK and back in custody with his parents," Tooley said. "It is a pretty good day in the city of Sanford."

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