Source = CNN

Girl rescued from washing machine
Sunday, May 25, 2003 Posted: 8:21 AM EDT (1221 GMT)

POMONA, California (AP) -- A 2-year-old girl was rescued from a locked, running washer at a coin laundry and her mother was arrested after a surveillance tape allegedly showed her putting the child into the machine, police said.

An officer smashed the window of the machine with his baton to rescue the girl, who was "submerged in water," police Sgt. Matt Stone said.

The child was unconscious when she was pulled from the washer Saturday but breathing. She was taken to a hospital where she was listed in serious condition with cuts, scrapes, bruises. She had inhaled some water but was expected to survive, Stone said.

Her mother, Erma Osborne, 35, of Pomona, California, later was arrested for investigation of child endangerment and held on $10,000 bail.

Surveillance camera footage showed that the woman placed her daughter in one washer, then removed her and placed her in a second front-loading washer, which turned on when she closed the door, Stone said.

"She wasn't drowned but she was getting there," Los Angeles County fire Capt. Dan Ramirez said.

The machine apparently locks automatically when the wash cycle begins and does not unlock until the cycle ends, Ramirez said.

Efforts by the girl's mother and bystanders to unlock the door failed.
<font color=skyblue>

Why does it say here in the last sentence that the girl's mother took part in the attempt to unlock the door? Why would she be caring to open the door at this point? Is it a typo, perhaps? If I would have been there, I would not have let the woman near the machine while others were trying to open it. I would have probably been ramming her into one myself! </font>

<font color=lime>Man, some people are just to stupid to be alive. I hope she is punished severly! </font>

That is inexcusable. To even for 1 second put a child into a washing machine beggars belief. And she moved the child from one machine to another, maybe the first machine wasn't working properly. Unbelievable!!!! She needs locking up surely. Poor kid, wonder how it will turn out if she ever finds out her mother put her in a washing machine.

don't know what the mother was thinking, she need a real hard lesson in that. a hard one indeed.

OMG! That is horrible!!! :(

Larry, I reckon the bitch noticed others saw what she was doing, so decided to try to play the "Oh what is happening, I dunno, she just crawled in and I didn't see, I wasn't paying attention" bit.

[ 05-25-2003, 09:58 PM: Message edited by: ladyzekke ]

<font color = lightgreen>The security tape allegedly shows her putting the child in the washer? Allegedly? ALLEGEDLY?! It's a security tape, for heaven's sake! It shows only what it actually happening. It wasn't "allegedly" happening--it happened!! [img]graemlins/madhell.gif[/img]

Lock Ms. Osborne, 35, of Pamona, California into a front-loading washer. Let be done to you what you have done to others--revenge or poetic justice?</font>

That's kind of how I read it too Wendy. If she's on camera and she's put the kid in two machines she's knackered. I'm gobsmacked by the story. :(

Lock her up, throw away the key. This is disgusting and should not be tolerated under any circumstances.

Your very sinister interpretation, LadyW, is of course very possible, but I think another, a tad more "innocent" might be conceivable as well: maybe the mother did not plan on drowning her daughter but "just" wanted to lock her up in the machine as a way of punishing her or of simply "having her out of the way". Is it possible that the machine was turned on automatically - and in this case accidentally so - by closing the door? Of course, even the behaviour I described would still constitute an abhorrent degree of cruelty, irresponsibility and stupidity on the mother's part. I am not enough of a legal expert to assess if the fact that the mother was being held on grounds of "just" child endangerment is any indication that the authorities were leaning towards "my" version at the time when the report was written.

If the person writing the article had only heard about what is on the tape, but hadn't seen it, it would "allegedly" show her putting the child in the machine. You cant report as fact what is only hearsay.

Anyway, I would tend to lean towards ramon's interpretation - a very stupid act not intended to actualy result in the machine being turned on. Although, it was a coin laundry, whether the machine turns on when the door closes or not, there would have to be money in it at the time.