Mother says baby left alone at Marblehead daycare

Posted: 02/06/13 at 6:25 pm EST      Last Updated: 02/07/13 at 9:51 am EST

MARBLEHEAD, Mass. (WHDH) -- An outraged mother says her 10-month-old baby was left alone at a daycare in Marblehead on Tuesday.

The mother and father left their son at the YMCA daycare center while they went to work out. When they returned over an hour later, the lights in the daycare were off and no one was in the daycare. The mother says she found her son, Kyle, sleeping in a stroller by himself.

YMCA officials say the baby was left alone for only two to five minutes, but the parents say it was too long.

“I was just panicked. I was scared. I was thinking maybe they took him to come find me ‘cause it’s 1:58 and they close at 2. He was wearing a red shirt and I saw his little red arm with his hand right there and that’s when I got wicked nervous,” said Katie Gustasson, the baby’s mother.

“It’s scary. It was only about an hour and a half that you leave your baby there and there’s more than one staff member there so it felt safe at first and now we can’t take him back there,” said Andrew Turcotte, the baby’s father.

YMCA officials released a statement saying, “Such a mistake is unacceptable and resulted in the immediate suspension and termination of…two staff members.”

Police have filed a 51A report of alleged abuse or neglect of a child. The Marblehead YMCA was forced to file a child endangerment 51A report against itself as well.

The State Department of Children and Families is investigating.

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