newjerseynewsroom.com

BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Sometimes playing games is not all that funny. A video from a laundromat in Camden shows a man putting a 1-year-old child inside a washing machine.

The idea apparently was to play peek-a-boo with the boy, Saimeir Bush, but the “game” could have had serious consequences.

Multiple reports initially said that a May 11 surveillance video from Federal Laundromat in Camden showed a father putting his son in the washing machine as the child’s mother watches. Those reports were erroneous, however, as it was later revealed that the woman is the boy's babysitter and also his father's girlfriend. The man is a male friend of the babysitter and not the boy's father.

The toddler's mother, Sakia David, claims that the babysitter denied the incident at first.

"She said it wasn't her," said David, according to Today.com. "But when the cops came this morning to my house and told me to come outside I knew it was my baby.”

The Associated Press reports that the mother wants the babysitter to face charges over the incident.

The washer door locked after the man closed it, and the child went tumbling around in the automatic wash cycle for over a minute as it filled with water while his mother screamed for help.

The washing machine video has gone viral on YouTube and across the Internet.

According to myfoxphilly.com, a laundromat employee rescued the boy when he opened a panel at the back of the machines and cut off the power on the circuit board in order to open the locked washer. The child did not appear to be hurt.

The owners of the laundromat said the pair had been trying to entertain their child earlier by putting him in a dryer, which made the boy laugh.

Following the washing machine scare, the boy was taken to the hospital and later released.

No criminal charges have been filed at this point, but the case has gone to New Jersey’s Division of Youth and Family Services.