Florida Mother Finds 2-Year-Old Locked Inside A Dark Room At Daycare

A Florida woman came across a shocking sight when she went to pick up her 2-year-old daughter from a daycare center. She found the baby alone inside a room with the doors locked and lights off.

Officers were called to the KinderCare Learning Center in Plantation, Florida, Wednesday evening, reported NBC 6. When Stephanie Martinez went to the daycare to pick up her daughter, the building was found locked from outside and the lights were off.

She immediately called the toddler's aunt, Samantha Scaramellino, to check whether she had picked up the girl.

"After a call to the police I told her to walk around the building banging on all the windows and after a while, in the pitch-black room, she sees her face emerge," Scaramellino posted on Facebook.

Martinez said her daughter, Anastasia, was able to push a chair to the window and stand on it to get her attention. "It's the worst feeling ever. You feel helpless. You can't do anything to console her. She was stressed out and definitely crying the whole time she was there by herself," Martinez was quoted by NBC 6.

The child was crying, peering out of a window. The mother immediately called 911 and filmed the child using her phone.

"She is inside the daycare. She just came up to the door," Martinez told the dispatcher, adding that the child was alone inside the room. "Yes, she's crying. She's inside by herself."

Officers from the Plantation Police and Fire immediately arrived and forced the doors open. The child was reportedly fine, but it was unclear as to how long she was left alone inside.

The assistant director of the daycare, who immediately arrived at the location, told police that she and another teacher were the last ones to leave the premises. They left the daycare around 10 minutes before the mother arrived to pick up her child.

Martinez told police she did not receive any calls from the daycare asking her to pick up her kid.

The staff members involved were placed on administrative leave, KinderCare said in a statement.

"We take all concerns about children's safety seriously and follow a specific protocol anytime an issue is raised. Part of that protocol includes notifying our agency partners, like state licensing and Child Protective Services, as we did in this case," the statement read. "We also placed the staff members involved on administrative leave while we, and our agency partners, look into the concern further."