A Missouri man was arrested for attempting to fraudulently use a prosthetic arm to obtain a doctor’s note for his child at a pediatric clinic, according to the Springfield News-Leader.
Theresa Reaves told the News-Leader that on Dec. 6, a local police officer pulled her son, 14-year-old Sael Baker, into the law enforcement center for a five-minute hearing about the fake arm, which had looked like a fully-functional hand and was similar to his real arm. Reaves told the News-Leader she noticed she had forgotten to inform him about the fake arm when they went to get the teenager his immunization form.
“You’re not getting a completed vaccine card with that baby,” Reaves recalled him saying. She immediately returned her son to the clinic, telling the boy that he would no longer be using the fake arm and he would have to use one of his own hands to get the vaccine card.
When the child could not complete the immunization form, however, the Springfield clinic called police.
Austin Barnes, 20, was arrested and charged with unlawful use of an arm. The News-Leader reports that the man’s real arm was destroyed, and the prosthetic arm is still with authorities.