There's gotta be a better way to get your kids clean

[JeeberD]

What in the hell was this woman thinking? I hope she get the book thrown at her...

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Girl rescued from washing machine

Monday, May 26, 2003 Posted: 2:53 AM EDT (0653 GMT)

POMONA, California (AP) -- A 2-year-old girl was rescued from a locked, running washer at a coin laundry and her mother was arrested after a surveillance tape allegedly showed her putting the child into the machine, police said.

An officer smashed the window of the machine with his baton to rescue the girl, who was "submerged in water," police Sgt. Matt Stone said.

The child was unconscious when she was pulled from the washer Saturday but breathing. She was taken to a hospital where she was listed in serious condition with cuts, scrapes, bruises. She had inhaled some water but was expected to survive, Stone said.

Her mother, Erma Osborne, 35, of Pomona, California, later was arrested for investigation of child endangerment and held on $10,000 bail.

Surveillance camera footage showed that the woman placed her daughter in one washer, then removed her and placed her in a second front-loading washer, which turned on when she closed the door, Stone said.

"She wasn't drowned but she was getting there," Los Angeles County fire Capt. Dan Ramirez said.

The machine apparently locks automatically when the wash cycle begins and does not unlock until the cycle ends, Ramirez said.

Efforts by the girl's mother and bystanders to unlock the door failed.

Pic of the little girl...

[FBPro]

Anyone got an extra capacity washer, uh "chair" for the mom?

[Alf]

I'm sure the mother will sue the laundry-machine manufacturer as it wasn't written : don't put your child onto the washing machine !

[stkelly52]

Interestingly, I had one of these kind of side opening washers, and the fact that they couldn't be opened bothered me for just this reason. Not that I would ever put a kid in a washer, but I remeber my mom starting the laundry with a cat inside. Had she not been able to open it it would have caused a mess.

[tucker342]

Oh you know she's going to sue...

[FBPro]

How else could she possibly get her drug, alcohol and tobacco cash? Work?

[JeeberD]

And then there's the case of the woman who left her twin 2 year old daughters on a busy street corner during rush hour yesterday in Fort Worth.

People like this don't deserve the protection that the legal system gives them...

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Police file warrant against woman who abandoned twin toddlers

By JULIE ELLIOTT / The Dallas Morning News


LAKE WORTH - Police have filed arrest warrants against a 24-year-old woman and her boyfriend who abandoned twin 22-month-old girls in the roadway of State Highway 199 Monday afternoon, just minutes after retrieving her children from an aunt who had been caring for them.

The girls, who were not injured, were left at the intersection of State Highway 199 and Boat Club Road. State Highway 199 is also referred to as Lake Worth Boulevard and Jacksboro Highway, about a block from Loop 820. Police said the children were on the road only seconds about 2 p.m. before other drivers stopped to assist them. The girls are now in foster care, officials said.

The girls' mother, Christy Radacy, is charged with two felony counts of abandoning/endangering a child with imminent danger of bodily injury by a custodian, police said. Sari Muhanna, 35, who was in the car with Ms. Radacy, is also being sought on child endangerment charges. Police are seeking both of them.


"It appears [the mother] she took custody of the children and then decided that she did not want to keep custody," said Lake Worth Police Det. D.T. Tatsak, adding that there were several witnesses. "She stopped the car and she took them out of both sides of the car and put them in the roadway. The mother went to one side, removed the child from the car and stood it in the roadway. Then, she went to the other side and removed the second child."

Child Protective Services picked up the toddlers from the Lake Worth police station and interviewed them Monday afternoon.

"They are not very verbal so we were unable to get many details from the children," said Marleigh Meisner, a CPS spokeswoman.

Fortunately, Ms. Meisner said, there were plenty of witnesses who described what happened to the children. Late Monday afternoon, the children had already been placed with a foster family, and Ms. Meisner said her office would ask a judge to allow the twins to stay there until an investigation has been completed.

The children were the subject of a previous CPS investigation but were not removed from the home, Ms. Meisner said. That investigation was closed.

Det. Tatsak said preliminary investigations indicate the mother and aunt had argued about custody of the children. It is unknown how long the aunt had been caring for the girls.

"They had agreed to meet to exchange custody," Det. Tatsak said. "The swap had been made and the mother apparently decided she didn't want custody."

More than a dozen passersby - including an off-duty Tarrant County Sheriff's Department deputy - stopped their vehicles to assist the little girls after they had been placed on the road. The off-duty deputy apparently directed traffic and helped to get the children to safety, while others offered assistance. Some even gave the girls snacks and sodas from a nearby convenience store.

"Everyone just bailed out of their cars to stop and retrieve the girls from the road," said Argyle resident Lori Leonard, who witnessed the incident with her 12-year-old daughter and her daughter's friend. "There were at least a dozen adults who abandoned their vehicles to help these girls. We were all pretty upset about this. To think, anyone would leave their children there. That is an absolutely horrendous intersection. I can't imagine a worse place for someone to dump their children."

Det. Tatsak said State Highway 199 sees a steady flow of traffic.

"It is always very congested in that area," he said.

Several other police agencies, including Fort Worth, Haltom City and Bedford, are working with Lake Worth police, the Tarrant County Sheriff's Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety, to locate the mother.