CHICOPEE (WBZ) ― Police say a Northampton man tried to swap his 3-month-old daughter for beer or drugs.
A maintenance man at a gas station in Chicopee claims 24-year-old Matthew Brace offered him his baby girl Monday.
"He said, 'For two 40's you can have her,'" Chicopee Police Chief John Ferraro, Jr. told reporters at a Tuesday morning news conference.
"It's my understanding 40's are those large oversize beers," he added. "He was trying to trade the baby for beer."
However, hours after the news conference, police said that "40" is also slang for crack cocaine.
Now investigators are not sure whether Brace meant beer or crack.
Brace allegedly walked to the convenience store from an Econo Lodge motel in Chicopee where he's been living with his girlfriend and daughter.
Police say he put the girl in the back of a workman's truck, making him the offer.
The maintenance man called police, who found Brace hiding with the girl behind a trash container.
State child welfare officials took the baby into custody.
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