Imagination Playground in Prospect Park, Brooklyn NY

Received Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Physical description of caregiver: Medium-blond, Polish babysitter, mid-twenties (picture attached).

Physical description of involved child/children: Little girl by the name of Kaya, wearing a pink shirt, with 'Los Angeles' bejeweled on the front. She wore light-colored denim capri pants, white socks and sparkly pink shoes that have a velcro strap. She is in the first grade and was taken to the park by her babysitter after school. She has medium-brown hair and had two braided ponytails. Kaya is of light-coffee complexion, and is approximately 40-ish inches tall.

Address or venue of observed incident: Imagination Playground in Prospect Park, Brooklyn NY

Date and time of incident: Monday, June 14th at around 3:15pm

Detailed description of what you witnessed: My husband and I took our kids to Imagination Playground at around 3pm this afternoon. A few minutes after we arrives, Kaya (the child) came up to my husband and was talking to him and playing very nicely with our daughter. After a little while, my husband expressed concern that here is a little girl he'd never seen before talking to a stranger and no grown-up is coming up to wonder why a man is talking with their child. My husband walked up to your sitter and asked her if Kaya was her daughter. The sitter was talking on the phone and facing away from where we were. She looked up from her phone conversation and said "no, I'm her babysitter" and continued her conversation on her cell phone. She spoke Polish fluently. A half hour later Kaya was still playing with us and the sitter was still on the phone. If you know this playground, you know that there are animal sculptures in the back where kids can poke their heads through. My husband and I were there with our kids and Kaya was there too. There is no way your babysitter could see Kaya from where she was. She never once got off the phone to look for the child, never called for her, and never even looked over to see what two strangers were doing with her charge. Quite honestly, anyone could have left the park with your child and it probably would have been a good long time before your sitter realized Kaya was gone. After 45 minutes, I finally got the nerve to take the babysitter's picture with our camera. The sitter was so into her conversation that she never even noticed her picture was being taken. After a little over an hour and a half (it is now almost 5pm) we told Kaya we were leaving. My husband and I purposefully exited the playground in the direction that your babysitter was sitting in the hopes of getting her attention off her phone call. We both stopped right in front of her, waved and said goodbye to Kaya while she sat next to the babysitter. Your sitter was still yapping away on the phone! According to Kaya, "she [the babysitter] talks and talks and talks and talks on the phone all day". She mimicked for my husband and I what your babysitter does all day. In the entire time we were at the playground, your sitter never once talked to Kaya or even looked in her direction. Kaya's parents: whatever you are paying her sitter, she's not worth it. You should consider docking her pay by an hour and a half, since my husband and I were the ones who watched your daughter this afternoon in the playground.

Kaya is a wonderful and smart little girl. She played very nicely with our daughter and was very engaging. It seems all she wanted was a little attention and the babysitter completely ignored her the entire time we were there. Sad :(

Description of vehicle, bag, stroller that may aid in identifying involved caregiver: (see picture below, view larger HERE)