Pregnant woman robbed on her way to given birth to her baby girl

A pregnant Florida woman, Julienne Antoine, was reportedly robbed on her due date, just hours before giving birth to a baby girl last month. According to Fox 35 Orlando, Antoine was taking a walk to help relieve her contractions on the morning of Oct. 24, when an unidentified man walked up to her, attacked her and stole her gold necklace from her neck.

Antoine said the necklace, which was worth $1500, was a birthday gift and had sentimental value. She said:

"I've had the necklace for about 10 years, somebody gave it to me for a birthday gift. What hurts the most is that I know he most likely sold it for next to nothing, if he did get it sold,"

Julienne Antoine told WKMG that she woke up with her contractions about 20 minutes apart that day so she decided to take a walk at around 10:30 a.m. in Orlando.

"There was a young man walking toward me," Antoine told WKMG. "I just looked at him and smiled, and then he had something in his hand. He was smoking and he kind of threw it out and he just lunged at me."

She added that the suspect pocketed the chain and "proceeded to walk past me like nothing happened."

Antoine told WKMG that the robber started running at her when she pulled out her phone to call the authorities, leading her to run into the street and yell for help.

"I was like, if he punches me and I fall down, and I'm on my due date, I don't want anything to happen to the baby," she said. "I already carried this baby for nine months. I'm not going to let something happen to her." 

Antoine was later rushed to the hospital, where she gave birth to her daughter, Janelle, at about 5:30pm the same day.

Antoine said:

"I just couldn't believe it". "Who robs a pregnant woman?"

Antoine told WKMG.

"Thankfully, she was OK. I'm just thinking you know, what if I had ran behind him or something? It could have been worse." 

On Monday the Orange County Sheriff's Office released a sketch of the suspect who still hasn't been captured.

[Palm Beach report]