By now you’ve probably come across the video of a man putting a toddler into a running washing machine at a laundry mat in Camden, NJ (if not, check it out below.) The guy places the boy into the machine head first and then closes the door which triggers the automatic door lock and causes the machine to turn on. For just under two minutes, we see the boy spin inside the machine while the man and a woman who was with him try to alert the laundry attendants and get him out. Though we see the boy come out okay in the end, I’m pretty sure everyone watching cried child abuse, but police say not so.
WPVI-TV spoke with the boy’s mother, Sakia David, who recognized her son, Saimier Bush, and his babysitter/his father’s girlfriend in the video once it went viral. David said she confronted the babysitter about about the clip and she denied it was her, yet in the very same interview, she later said she hadn’t spoken with the babysitter at all. NBC was able to get in touch with police who said the babysitter admitted to being at the mat that day but they couldn’t confirm the mother’s story at all.
It doesn’t appear to really though matter because although this was probably one of the dumbest moves in the history of child pranks, no one is being charged.
“This was not an intelligent choice to put the baby in the washing machine, but it was not a crime,” Jason Laughlin, a spokesperson from the Camden County prosecutor’s told CNN.
Perhaps not a crime, but this whole situation reeks of a much-needed visit from child services. You’ve got your baby daddy’s girlfriend watching your child and she lets an unknown man who’s not the boy’s father put him in a washing machine and you don’t know about it—or even who he is? That’s scary. Luckily the boy only suffered minor physical injuries but the fact that his mother considers this a harmless accident is odd. She claims she’ll think twice before leaving Saimier in this woman’s care again. I hope she’s telling the truth.
Check out the clip from the laundry mat here. What do you think bout this whole situation?
Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.
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