PHENIX CITY, AL (WTVM) - A mother in Phenix City is looking for answers after she says her son was mistreated at a local daycare.
It is a scenario that no parent wants to imagine -- their child being mistreated by a daycare worker.
Sydney Zimmerman says that is exactly what she discovered when she walked into her child's home daycare and found him in a dark un-air-conditioned closet strapped in a car seat.
He could have overheated and died," says Zimmerman.
She says she was in shock at what she found at her son's daycare when she arrived early to pick him up.
"I followed her in and then she goes to Cindy’s closet, opens the closet door, turns the light on and my son is sitting there strapped in a car seat that is not his and the first thing he says when he sees me is 'mama.'
That is when Sidney left with her 22-month-old son, Slade, and went to see her mom to call the police.
Before officers could arrive, Cindy Duman, the owner of the home daycare calls to try and explain what happened.
"She's all...sometimes he doesn't want to take a nap. Sometimes he doesn't this or that," says Zimmerman.
Sidney Zimmerman says her fear now is that this is not the first-time Slade had been locked in the closet.
"That tells me sometimes this happens," she says.
Mary Pruett, the worker accused of putting Slade in the closet lives in front of the home where the daycare is located.
News Leader 9 stopped by to ask Pruett about the incident.
No one was home and no cars were in the driveway.
Zimmerman says she is planning to press charges against Cindy Duman and Mary Pruett for child endangerment, child neglect, and operating a business without a license.
She says she doesn't wish this on anyone.
News Leader 9 reached out to the Lee County Sheriffs office for more details but were told more will be available on Monday.
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