Havelock, NC — A North Carolina mother says she found her son and seven other children locked inside a childcare center — with no employees in sight. Police say the daycare center’s owner lied to officers. She has been charged with child abuse.
Jessica Lewis took out her cell phone and recorded the scene on Friday afternoon at the “Prince and Princess Play Date” daycare.
Lewis told WITN she got off work early, but when she went to get her son the doors were locked, “When my son got to the window I said where’s your teacher? He said she wasn’t there she had left to pick up the other kids.”
Lewis called the police, who arrived 15 minutes later. Soon after the owner Danika Edwards, 28, arrived.
Edwards offered this explanation to police, according to Lewis, “She said she had an employee there, and that employee sent her a text message saying she had to leave because her mom was having a heart attack.”
Officers say the story wasn’t true, and she intentionally left eight children, ages 11 months to 7 years alone.
Edwards was arrested yesterday on six counts of misdemeanor child abuse. Police charged her today with two more counts of the same crime.
