5-Year-Old at Tanning Salon: 'It's Like Taking Her Shopping,' Mom Says (VIDEO)
A New Jersey woman was arrested on charges of child endangerment after reports followed that the 44-year-old woman had taken her daughter into a tanning booth.
Patricia Krentcil was arrested when her 5-year-old daughter's teacher called protective services after the girl arrived to school "badly burned." When asked where she had received the "rash" on her skin, the girl replied that she "went tanning with mommy."
The girl's father, Rich Krentcil, told NBC news that he believed the teacher had misheard his daughter.
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Particia Krentcil has insisted that she did not take her daughter to get a tan, and only brought the girl along to the appointment. She claimed that her daughter had become "slightly tan" after a day of playing outside.
"I would never in my life let my daughter, especially at that age, go into a tanning booth," Krentcil told Good Morning America.
SEE VIDEO OF THE TANNING BOOTH STORY HERE
Rich Krentcil suggested that the situation was a big misunderstanding that had gotten out of hand.
"This whole big thing happened, and everyone got involved," Rich Krentcil said. "It was 85 degrees outside, she got sunburned. That's it. That's all that happened."
Patricia Krentcil said that taking her daughter to the tanning salon was like taking her shopping, suggesting that she treated the tanning trips as errands.
"It's like taking your daughter to go food shopping," she told NBC 4 New York at her Nutley, N.J. home after being released on $25,000 bail. "There's tons of moms that bring their children in."
Krentcil believes that it is ok to expose her daughter to her tanning habit, so long as her daughter is not a part of it. She did not reveal who took watch of her daughter while she was in the booth.
"I tan, she doesn't tan," she continued. "I'm in the booth, she's in the room. That's all there is to it."
Krentcil will appear in court Wednesday, and attempt to argue to the judge that the whole case had just been a complete misunderstanding.
"My daughter's a beautiful girl who loves school, who had to go through this, and I think it's traumatizing for a little girl who did nothing wrong but got a little sunburned," Krentcil said.
