Nanny Cam caper captures cruel Canton caretaker -Cherokee County Collars

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/cherokee/stories/2007/12/28/nannycam_1229.html

'Nanny cam' catches woman beating Canton toddler

By KAREN ROSEN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 12/28/07

A 23-year-old Rockmart woman was charged with cruelty to children in the first degree after parents of a 13-month old Canton boy filmed her with a "nanny cam."

The Cherokee County Sheriff's detectives arrested her Thursday.

Cherokee County Sheriff's Office

Constance Smith

In one hour of footage, Constance Smith was shown slapping the child in the face, pushing him to the ground and pinching him on the leg.

Sam Yaun, the boy's father, disguised the camera and microphone in a pair of speakers atop the television set in the living room. After viewing the video, he said, "I felt like throwing up. I felt sick. And my wife was hysterical."

Smith had been caring for the boy three days a week since September. She was released from the Cherokee County Adult Detention Center Thursday night on a $22,000 bond.

"We're pretty traumatized by the whole thing," Yaun said. "You can't trust anybody."

Yaun said he and his wife, Jessica, became suspicious because their son was "clingy" when she left the house in the morning.

All of his toys that made noise were turned off and a blanket he loved was left in the crib. They didn't notice any marks on his body, although after seeing the video they saw a bruise on his thigh.

Yaun, who works for a home theater company, said he encourages all parents with nannies or babysitters to set up a hidden camera.

"This is the first time we recorded her and it was for one hour, and that's what we got," Yaun said, "so I just hate to think what she may have been doing that we didn't know and we'll never know."

The Yauns had found Smith on a website.

"Her resume was awesome," Yaun said. "She had supposedly taken care of autistic children, Down syndrome children, hyperactive children."

He said they did a background check and checked three references who all gave Smith high marks.

"I feel like we covered our bases and were really careful about who we let into our house to care for our child," Yaun said. "The fact it's turned out this way is disheartening."

Yaun said that before his wife became suspicious, she wanted him to install a hidden camera "just out of curiosity" to see how Smith interacted with the child.

"I didn't do it," he said. "I told her that I felt really confident with her. It seemed like my son really liked her. I felt like we would be spying on her and didn't feel she deserved that."

Yaun said the video would not be released.

So buy a nanny cam/hidden camera and save a child.

Near the beach,.. and Rats with wings???

Went down to the beach and the truck gets checked out

This seagull walked along the bed rail checking out everything in the bed of the truck.

One pigeon jumps onto the mirror, I asked the pigeon what it wanted and it just cocked it's head, I told it, you want something? just come on in, and it did! Another took it's place on the mirror. How bold can these rats get?

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Pacific Dunes RV resort, close to the Pacific Ocean and right on Pismo Dunes National Preserve

On the Coast.. In the Redwoods..

Stayed at River Grove RV just outside Santa Cruz, Ca. the last two weeks.


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The trees made it very shady for most of the day, I get some early morning sun light like this and a little in the late afternoon. It's very calm and quiet here, the San Lorenzo River is just steps away and Henry Cowell State Park surrounds the RV park.

Under the giant Redwoods

I made several daytrips, I spent a day in Santa Cruz, then the next day drove to Monterey and had dinner. I stopped several places around the bay and checked out the sights, like the Pacific Ocean crashing beaches in front of the oncoming storm. (It rained for 16 hours the next day.)

Monterey Bay in the fog/smog from an overlook on Highway 1

We traveled down to Gilroy, an experience everyone should have, (home of garlic ice cream) and the World Famous Garlic Festival.

On the way back from Gilroy, and passing through the south part of San Jose, I spotted "City Diner-The Fabulous Fiftys" off in the corner of a mall, since it was about seven in the evening, I decided to stop. Glad I did, the chicken fried steak is the best I've had since the Mt. Air cafe in Park City, Ut. The potion was a little small for the price (everything is more expensive in California) but the taste and tenderness was right on. It was covered with pepper base country gravy instead of sausage gravy, but had real mashed potatoes on the side. Score this place a "10" I think it's the best score I've ever given since the Mt. Air.

P.S. Despite the name of the blog, I only get CFS about once a month, I've had so many bad ones, I always hesitate to order, since it ruins my tastebuds for a couple of months.

Delta Dawn, whats that flower.... Oh Delta Shores aka "on an island"

Stayed at Delta Shores RV resort for 2 weeks, Delta Shores is a flower in the center of California, with potlucks and ice cream socials every weekend, it's on Brannon Isle in the Delta area of the Sacramento River. Sacramento, San Francisco, Oakland, and Stockton are within an easy days drive back and forth (daytrip.) I had a Thanksgiving in nearby Rio Vista, at the Moose Lodge and another on Saturday at the Delta Shores Park. The breeze is usually warm and moist, it's nice and cool at night (50F) and 65F to 70F during the day.

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Unbeknownst to most RV'ers, Delta Shores is a K/M resort, so K/M members only pay two dollars a night here for full hookups. Coast to Coast people pay $8. It's a benefit of having a camping membership.

On checking in, I met one of the McLoeds, I forget which one, not Doug, maybe Kevin, (I've become terrible with names since I don't write them down anymore.) He was cool, we discussed Neskowin Creek resort in Oregon (another K/M resort) and Two Springs resort, (he invited me over since I was going to stay at CatSpa again.)

We went on several daytrips in the area, one was to the Sacramento LDS Temple and one to the Oakland LDS Temple.

Evening Christmas Lights 2007-Oakland

Ready for Christmas-Oakland Temple