Video Captures Dad Putting Baby in Washing Machine

Authorities in Camden, New Jersey, want to have a conversation about parenting with a dad who was caught on camera putting his toddler son in a washing machine. In what appears to have been a game of peek-a-boo gone wrong, the father places the boy in a laundromat washing machine and shuts the door—starting an automatic washing cycle and locking the door. The boy's frantic parents yanked on the door before an employee unplugged the machine, allowing the apparently unharmed boy to be pulled to safety after a minute or so in the washer.

Authorities trying to locate the family say the laundromat's owners told them that the parents ran out of the laundromat after the incident, but the father returned later to collect the laundry and told them that the child had been taken to hospital and was fine, the Courier-Post reports. "Right now we just want to make sure the child is OK,” a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office says. "We don’t believe there was any criminal intent. It was more of an accident." (More washing machine stories.)