Two female teenage babysitters from Danvers, Massachusetts have been arrested and charged with child endangerment and assault after placing a baby into a refrigerator and posting a video of the horrific spectacle online.
The video shows the two girls hysterically laughing as they shove the crying infant sideways into the refrigerator and closing the fridge door. With the fridge door shut, the baby can be overhead screaming loudly. One of the girls then take the baby out while continuing to laugh like a hyena. “See she’s OK,” says the girl in reference to the traumatized infant.
The girls posted the video on Snapchat, an online app used to send and receive short clips to friends.
Police arrested the girls Monday after being notified of an abuse incident involving an infant.
“The girls were arraigned Tuesday in Essex Juvenile Court in Salem on charges of child endangerment and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon,” reports The Boston Herald.
“The refrigerator was the dangerous weapon,” Essex District Attorney spokesman Steve O’Connell told the Herald Wednesday.
The baby’s mother spoke to local media shortly after the ordeal, claiming that one of the babysitters was actually her niece.
“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 told WCVB-TV (Ch. 5). “It’s very foolish. … They didn’t do it trying to harm my daughter, they did it as, like, playing around.”
“I will no longer be leaving my children with my niece or her friend ever again in my life,” added the mother, downplaying the incident.
With the two babysitters in custody, Massachusetts’s Department of Children and Families is assessing the “situation” to determine if any further course of action is necessary to ensure the child’s welfare moving forward. The department “received a report on this situation and is investigating in collaboration with law enforcement,” stated a spokesman Wednesday.