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Barbara Skrzypczynska had taken the baby for a walk when the authorities were called early Tuesday, May 23, Wallington Police Chief Carmello J. Imbruglia said.
They were headed toward her own home in the nearby Mount Pleasant Village Apartments when Officer Richard Ray found them, he said.
The officer brought the Polish national and the baby back to the Johnson Avenue house, Imbruglia said.
Meanwhile, Detective Lt. Joseph Rock reviewed the nannycam footage with the infant’s father.
The video shows what Lukasz Adamkiewicz called a “senseless and vicious beating” that occurred just after he and his wife both left for work.
Skrzypczynska is seen fixing the child’s blanket for sleep, walking away from the crib and closing the door, Imbruglia explained.
“The child started to cry,” the chief said, “so the babysitter walked back into the room, yelled at the child, and smacked the child in the back.
“She then readjusted the blanket in an attempt to put the child to sleep,” Imbruglia added. “As the child continued to cry the babysitter punched the child with a closed fist, yelled at the child again, and walked away.”
No one would've been the wiser if not for a family member's caregiver who happened to be in the two-family house at the time.
She'd heard what she thought were unusual cries and told Adamkiewicz's mother-in-law, who called him and suggested he check the cameras.
"That’s when I discovered the recording what happened," Adamkiewicz told Daily Voice on Friday.
Police charged Skrzypczynska with assault and child endangerment and sent her to the Bergen County Jail. A Superior Court judge in Hackensack released her the very next day.
It wasn't immediately clear whether ICE had been contacted about her residency status.
Adamkiewicz followed the incident with a social media post warning that anyone who may have employed “Basia” Skrzypczynska as a babysitter could have “real cause for concern.”
She had a clean background and “great references,” which made it all even more horrifying, the anguished father noted.
“It breaks my heart to tell you he has bruises down his spine and off to the sides,” Adamkiewicz wrote. “Our baby boy was terrified laying on his stomach in the crib not moving while she took a beating to him.
“It pains me not knowing how many times she beat him,” he added. “We are lucky enough our…baby cam motion sensor activated to capture at least one of the vicious beatings.”
Adamkiewicz thanked the countless people on social media who expressed love and concern.
His boy’s bruises “are healing fast” and he “is doing well,” the relieved dad wrote. “Overall he is his happy self, but putting him to sleep is a little tougher.”
He, his wife and their child “will continue to heal as a family,” Adamkiewicz added.
Meanwhile, he said, they will work to “ensure this woman will never babysit another child again.”
“Please. If you know anyone else that is using her as a babysitter, [p]lease tell them what happened,” he said. “Please don’t let this be someone’s else’s baby.”
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