Houston mom Sharonda Ross claims to have broken inside a local daycare facility to save her 10-month-old son after he was allegedly forgotten and left locked inside on Monday night.
Ross, a security worker, has had a standing agreement with Joann's Day Care since April, in which she would be able to pick up her son as soon as her shift was finished at 6 p.m., the same time that the center closes, according to ABC News.
However, Ross, 30, was in for a shock when she arrived at the daycare only to later realize that her son, Jordan, was locked inside of the building alone.
"I was thinking this isn't happening. I'm dreaming," she told ABC News. "I'm going to wake up and it's going to be a dream. I'm just at a loss for words."
At first, she thought that her husband, Laurence Matthews, had already picked up the child, but her suspicions were confirmed when he revealed that he hadn't. Upon this realization, the two rushed to the daycare at around 6:45 p.m. and heard their son crying. The two then took matters into their own hands and broke inside the facility in order to save their son, filming the incident as they went, according to Examiner.
Their decision to film the incident was crucial because if they hadn't, authorities would have little choice but to treat the incident as a criminal break-in. Without evidence that Jordan was inside, it would have been the parents' word against the daycare's.
No charges were filed against the two, but Ross is still upset about the incident, News One reported.
"No parent should have to go through this, and yes, things happen but it's still not acceptable," Ross said. "It's a sense of relief knowing that you can hear your child, you have a sense of where he's at, but it's just overwhelming, the initial not knowing."
Joann Davis, the owner of the daycare, said that the staff member responsible for the incident won't face disciplinary action and readily admitted that the incident was entirely their fault.
"It was our mistake. I'm not saying it's not," Davis told ABC's Houston affiliate KTRK. "But the main thing is the baby's okay, and I'm sorry as I can be."
However, the parents have opted to file a report against the daycare.
This was the latest incident involving daycare negligence, as two boys in Oklahoma needed to be hospitalized earlier this week after suffering severe sunburns as a result of their teachers letting them play in temperatures of almost 100 degrees Fahrenheit without sunscreen, HNGN previously reported.
