Mar 31, 2009 11:15 pm US/Eastern
CBS 2 Goes High-Tech: Who's Watching The Kids?
In Today's Day And Age It's Hard To Trust Anyone, But If You Have To, Installing Surveillance Cams Advisable
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
-
-
A North Carolina nanny is caught mishandling a baby on a mother's nanny cam.
CBS News
With both parents needing to go to work to make ends meet these days it can be nerve-racking to leave a child home with a nanny.
But now it's cheaper and easier than ever to install a nanny cam for peace of mind.
The video CBS 2 HD obtained recently is heart-wrenching to watch. It shows children being abused by those meant to be caring for them. The abuse was captured the first day concerned parents installed a camera in their Brooklyn home.
"I really didn't suspect anything, just doing it for peace of mind," "Barbara" told CBS 2 HD.
Like countless parents all across the country, the child's mother, who didn't want to fully identify herself, called police and the nanny was arrested.
Scott Tabankin of Armonk, N.Y., also installed a monitoring system to watch over his 11-month-old daughter, Samara. For nearly a year, he saw nothing unusual but then his little girl started to act differently.
"I just started getting a bad feeling," Tabankin said. "I gave Samara to my nanny and she latched on to me, she grabbed me, she didn't want to go to her."
Tabankin reviewed his tapes that night and couldn't believe his eyes. He was outraged to see his helpless child left alone for nearly eight hours. The nanny didn't feed or change her. She essentially disappeared.
"Put her in her crib, closed the door and left her in her crib," Tabankin said.
He then confronted her with the tape.
"You didn't feed her, what did you do? What did you do? And she just, her jaw dropped. She knew she was caught. She just started hysterical crying," Tabankin said.
Fifty thousand children were reported abused by nannies or day care providers in the year 2006. That statistic alone is chilling enough to inspire many parents to install secret surveillance systems so they can always know what's going on in their homes.
"I don't entrust my kids with anyone but family members because of what I see and what I do," security expert Rich Janelli said.
Janelli said today's surveillance systems can be secretly installed anywhere.
"The molding of a door … we would install them in ceiling tile holes. A motion detector or a smoke detector or a thermostat," Janelli said.
Once installed, you can watch live, in real time, from your office, your cell phone or just about anywhere -- from a simple Teddy Bear cam you can buy online for about $60 to sophisticated equipment that starts at about $1500.
Police arrested Tabankin's nanny on charges of child neglect. She was convicted, performed community service and now has a permanent record for any other family to see. To truly ensure your child's safety, experts say most importantly you need to fully research a nanny's background before leaving your children alone with one.
To help keep a watchful eye on your nanny outside the home, there are several Web sites that allow neighbors to post anonymous complaints. Please click here and here.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
World's Most Useless Facts
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Reporting
Comments