Woman poses as child protection officer as she tries to STEAL a baby from parents house

It's every parent's worst nightmare - a woman tried to steal a newborn baby by posing as an official child protection officer. 

And brazen Joanna Boyd even persuaded police to help her snatch the baby from a couple she claimed were un-fit parents. 

Joanna Boyd (pictured) posed as a woman selling newborn baby clothes and schemed to steal an infant from the family who answered her ad online.

The 39-year-old began messaging the family and used the information she found on their online profiles to gather details to create fake documents about their baby.

Joanna then planned to turn up to the family’s house in the hope of walking away with their baby.

She called Las Vegas Metropolitan Police posing as a Clark County Department of Family Services employee and requested back up at their house to make an emergency removal of the baby.

But after some research, the police department suspected the documents she provided were false and confirmed with the real Department Of Family Services that she wasn’t actually an employee.

 “The information that this female provided on these fraudulent documents was accurate information and the information that she got was from a Facebook account, posted openly by parents," Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Captain Nichole Splinter said in a press conference.

"From what she told to us originally is that she planned on keeping the baby because her children were taken from her at some point."

 "We all know that we're proud when we have new children," Splinter added. "But posting the personal information, the date of birth, as well as, the parents' dates of birth was able to provide the suspect the information she needed to make these documents look legit."

Boyd was later charged with attempted kidnapping, forgery, impersonating a public officer, and possession of a stolen vehicle, but had she not been caught out by the police, the family might have not been so lucky.

Richard Guerry with the Institute for Responsible Online and Cellphone Communication says posting information about your child online “really depends on what level of risk you’re willing to take." 

He suggests online users protect their privacy settings at all times to ensure information cannot be obtained and later manipulated by people such as Boyd.