Watch CBS News

Family Of Toddler Put In Washing Machine Speaks

By Anne-Marie Green and Diana Rocco

CAMDEN, NJ (CBS) -- The man and women in a YouTube video of an infant boy being put into a washing machine will not face any criminal charges.

The video shows a man playfully placing the boy in the machine at a Camden Laundromat. The man and his female companion become frantic when the machine door locks and the machine starts running with the boy inside. An employee eventually cuts the power to the machine, and the boy is removed.

The video went viral shortly after it was uploaded. Now, the prosecutor says the man is an acquaintance of the woman in the video, who was babysitting one-year-old Samier Bush.

The child's mother, 22-year-old Sakia David, didn't know about the incident until she saw it on the evening news. She called the babysitter, who the child calls "Mum," but the sitter denied that was she was the one on the tape. It was only when police contacted David that she realized the sitter had lied to her.

"I didn't know anything about it," she said while standing in front of her Camden home with her giggling son.

David said the babysitter--who is the girlfriend of David's baby's father--even took her son to the hospital, and no one alerted her.

"We're upset that we didn't know. We just found out. Why would somebody put a baby in the washing machine?" the toddler's grandmother said as she was leaving the police station.

"I was scared, I was very scared," said Kong Enh, who was working at the Federal Street laundry when the incident occurred and quickly flipped the circuit breakers.

And David says "Mum" will no longer be babysitting. DYFS is now investigating the incident, but Camden County Proseuctors don't expect to file criminal charges.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.