A pair of teenage babysitters in Massachusetts were arrested after authorities were alerted that they had allegedly sealed a crying baby in a refrigerator and posted the video online, reports say.
The teen girls, who have not been identified due to their age, were babysitting in Danvers, Massachusetts, on Monday when police say they posted the offensive video on Snapchat, according to the Boston Herald.
The shocking video shows the girls pushing the baby sideways onto a shelf in the cold box and then slamming the door as the child screams inside.
The Essex District Attorney’s office said the video was reported to both the Danvers and Swampscott police departments that Monday afternoon. The girls were arrested that same day.
Prosecutors charged the girls with child endangerment and assault and said the kitchen utility was used as a “dangerous weapon.”
By Tuesday it was revealed that one of the teens charged was the niece of the infant’s mother.
“My daughter is OK, I want everyone to know that I was not aware of the situation and it’s very unfortunate,” the baby’s mother said of the babysitters. “It’s very foolish. … They didn’t do it trying to harm my daughter, they did it as, like, playing around.”
The mother of the child said she was shocked by the video, the existence of which she only became aware when police showed it to her.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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