Dollmaker Janine Patterson of Middelburg ambushed by angry mob and SAPS: left lifelike doll in car

17:04 Nov 28 2013 Middelburg, South Africa

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Mrs Janine Patterson ambushed by angry mob, SAPS after leaving lifelike doll in car
16 May 2013 - Mrs Janine Patterson was 'ambushed' on Friday by the SAPS and a mob of about 50 people who shouted at her for 'leaving the baby in a hot car'. Look local journalist Daleen Naude writes that 'the police were ready to arrest Mrs Janine Patterson and the mob was all set to break open her car window.
"They (the SAPS) already grabbed me and were getting ready to throw me into the police van because they refused to believe that the doll wasn't a baby,' she said. She explained that she makes the life-like dolls herself - and had left one doll she named 'Nathan' on the front seat of her car inside its little blanket while she went to a cellphone business in the city centre.
She suspects that someone saw her put the 'wrapped up baby' on the front seat, because two hours later when she returned to her car, all hell broke lose. She was surrounded by a black mob and two police women. The crowd was screaming hysterically and even rocking her car to see if 'the baby was still alive'.
"There was no time to explain because the police women were all set to dump her into the van for 'child abuse'. She said she had to beg with them to let her open the car to show them the doll. "When I opened the car and grabbed the 'baby' by the arm and showed them the fabric the doll was made from, they started believing me.'
She said she 'had some panic moments' but at the same time it was a 'compliment' because people believed the dolls was so lifelike. She makes these herself with materials from Germany.
The dolls are filled with a type of glass which represents the exact weight of a real baby. It's also painted in several layers of realistic paint and each layer is baked: creating 'the idea that the baby has veins beneath the skin'.
Each doll gets its own character and name, and its 'birthweight'. She can even place a little machine inside the doll to duplicate a human heart beat and the dolls can make baby-sounds.
'Why do people buy such lifelike dolls?' she was asked. "Some people buy these dolls to deal with the mourning process after losing a baby,' she said.
http://www.looklocal.co.za/looklocal/content/en/middelburg/middelburg-news-general?oid=7464021&sn=Detail&pid=4979897&Baba-drama--%E2%80%98Nathan%E2%80%99-in-kar-gelos