Mom checks home camera — leading to child abuse charge against nanny, NC cops say
A mom said her “intuition” prompted her to check her home cameras — and discover an Eastern North Carolina nanny forcing her son to eat.
It ended with criminal charges.
Laura Oglesby told McClatchy News she was taking a break from a renovation project when she tuned into the live footage and heard the woman she had hired to watch her 2-year-old yelling at him on Tuesday.
Oglesby said she started recording the incident and raced home with her husband, Max. That’s when they confronted the nanny about the video — which also showed the woman holding her son down in a high chair and grabbing his face, according to a one-minute clip posted to Facebook.
“We are heartbroken for our son and furious that this happened,” Max Oglesby wrote Wednesday on social media. “We are taking appropriate actions upon this matter and will not stand for this happening to our baby or anyone else’s babies.”
It turns out, that Facebook post led police to arrest the nanny, according to the New Bern Police Department.
The woman, identified as 25-year-old Lauren Ashley Rowe, was charged with misdemeanor child abuse and taken to jail, officials said. The police department, roughly 115 miles southeast of Raleigh, didn’t list an attorney for Rowe in a news release.
Oglesby said the nanny knew the couple had cameras in her house, which she added makes the allegations concerning. She and her husband had previously struggled over whether to bring in a nanny but went forward with the decision about three weeks ago as they take steps toward opening a bar.
“Our life is very busy,” she said. “We normally have always taken the kids with us to do everything, but the bar is a dangerous place while we’re renovating it. “
Oglesby said after the incident — which she alleged also involved the nanny throwing a blanket at her 2-year-old — the couple told her not to come back.
The mother now has a message for other parents.
“It’s very, very important that you do have cameras because nobody can be trusted,” she said.
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