Kentucky Couple Trades Truck For Baby, Cops Say

Corbin, KY — A Kentucky couple is under arrest for trading a truck for a baby, and police say their intentions were good but their methodology was poor.

The baby’s biological mom, 30-year-old Heather Kaminskey, is said to have accepted a 1999 Dodge Dakota pickup in exchange for the baby boy she gave birth to earlier this year. Laurel County couple 31-year-old Jeremy Brown and 33-year-old Jamiee Brown have been arrested on charges of human trafficking, and Kaminskey is currently wanted on the same charge.

The truck traded for the baby (allegedly) seems to be an issue, and law enforcement officials say that Jeremy Brown originally claimed to be the baby’s biological father, and said that the child was a result of an extramarital affair between Kaminskey and Brown.

Laurel County Sheriff’s Deputy Rodney Van Zant explains that Kaminskey traveled from Florida to avoid involving social services in the child’s birth and custody:

“After speaking with Heather Kaminskey’s mother, who is in Florida, she told us that Heather had fled from Florida at nine months pregnant to come to Kentucky to have this child because the other two children had been removed by Florida social services and placed with other family members… So she came here without social services to take care of it.”

Van Zant says police became aware of the situation after the truck changed hands again:

“Asking about [a subsequent sale of the truck, the buyers] said, ‘Yes we bought the truck for $800 and no methamphetamine.’ So they said they bought it from Heather Kaminskey… [The buyers] said they hadn’t seen her in about a week-and-a-half and no meth was involved in the transaction. And they hadn’t seen her since then.”

Van Zant says the couple then changed their account, and admitted “that they had acquired the child pretty much right from birth and had taken it in, and given Kaminskey the truck in trade.” Kaminksey has not yet been located by authorities, and the couple’s other children have been placed with family following their parents’ arrest.