It’s a fixture of local papers around the country: the annual article trumpeting the first babies born in the new year. Remember, they’re never too young for bragging rights! Well, it won’t be happening in Richmond, Virginia, where local hospitals have announced that they will not be announcing the first-place kiddos of 2015, because of security concerns.
That’s according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Bon Secours Richmond Health System, HCA Virginia and VCU Medical Center have all agreed they won’t reveal the lucky winners:
“The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has cautioned against these announcements due to potential risk of abduction or identify theft. While the first birth of the New Year is a celebrated event, we jointly feel we must protect our patients and their children from unnecessary exposure,” the joint statement from the local hospitals said.
Kidnapping seems rare (and presumably more a question of hospital security procedures than whether the babies get a shout-out in the local paper). Identity theft seems all too likely, though. Most Americans are going to amass debt soon enough—don’t need a bunch of scammers preemptively nuking their credit. Sorry, Richmond. Now you’ll have no idea how trendy the local babies are.
Image via Anatoly Tiplyashin/Shutterstock.