Day care sends baby home with wrong parent, family says

PARAGOULD, Ark. (KAIT/Gray News) - A new mother experienced a scare Friday when she went to pick up her child from day care only to learn that her son was sent home with another parent.

Sammi Chipman said she went to Paragould’s Tiny Blessings in Paragould, Arkansas, after she got off work. Once there, she found out her 3-month-old son Ridge was sent home with another parent who didn’t seem to notice the baby wasn’t theirs.

Chipman told KAIT she knew something was wrong when she arrived at the day care because she can usually spot her own child. Then an employee handed her someone else’s child.

“They try to hand me a child which was not mine. I asked them multiple times where my child was, and they asked me, ‘Are you sure this isn’t your child?’” Chipman said.

According to a Paragould Police report, Ridge was sent home with another parent at the day care the Chipmans had never met.

“We had no idea who this man was, where he was, or where he went,” Chipman said. “We still to this day have no idea where he went this entire time.”

After an hour went by, the other parent finally returned with Ridge.

The police report said employees at the day care were worried the parent who took Ridge home was intoxicated due to the “mannerisms and the odor of suspected marijuana emitting from his person.”

An altercation took place in the parking lot because Chipman said she had the same question as everyone else: “How does this happen?”

“How could you not know that’s not your child? How could you take someone else’s child and have no remorse,” Chipman questioned.

Paragould’s Tiny Blessings announced stricter policies when parents or guardians pick up their children. The owner said the reasoning for the new policies was because of “COVID restrictions” but Chipman said she doesn’t believe that.

“They are supposed to have a sign-in, sign-out sheet, they are supposed to show IDs, there are a lot of things they are supposed to be doing that they have not been doing,” Chipman explained.

One of the co-owners of the day care, Kimberley Baker, released a statement saying the day care was cooperating with the investigations stemming from Friday’s incident as well as with concerned families and state and local authorities.

The day care also said an employee was fired, and the Chipman family was refunded all of the money they had spent at Paragould’s Tiny Blessings.

In a response to KAIT’s original story on the incident, Paragould’s Tiny Blessings said in a statement that some of the reporting was inaccurate and the day care fully cooperated with officials and families.

“I understand frustrations but I can promise you it was handled appropriately,” the statement said.

Copyright 2023 KAIT via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.