'I trusted her': West Seattle mom says babysitter stole over $1,300 from her home



SEATTLE -- A West Seattle mom says the babysitter she hired through an internet site stole more than $1 ,300 while caring for her baby.

Wendy Williams used the site UrbanSitter.com. She said the sitter watched her baby on Tuesday, but on Wednesday, she got a call from her bank about what turned out to be a stolen check.

Williams said as a working mom, finding someone to watch her 6-month old daughter Grace hasn’t been easy.

“It’s hard to find the time to find a nanny between juggling being a mom, working and having a life,” said Williams.

So that’s why this first-time mom turned to UrbanSitter for help.

“I’ve had great experience in the past and this person was available for two of the days that I needed,” said Williams.

Williams says her sitter stole cash, unused gift cards and then stole a check and wrote it out for $1,300.

“At first it was just shock, staring at the check and was like, that’s not my writing, that’s not my signature, but that’s my check,” she said.

Williams filed a police report and Seattle Police are investigating.

In the meantime, UrbanSitter, based in San Francisco, and the CEO said it has taken down the sitter’s profile and more.

“As soon as the parent let us know what happened, the sitter was blocked from our system,” said UrbanSitter founder and CEO Lynn Perkins. “We also followed up with the parent right away to make sure they had all the information with us to give police and take action swiftly on this.”

Perkins said the site does background checks on their sitters. It also uses social media and networking to prevent instances like these.

“It doesn’t happen often but when it does, by having the job on the platform we were able to deal with it, quickly take the sitter off,” said Perkins.

For Williams, she doesn’t plan to stop using the site, but says it’ll take some time before she trusts anyone again.

“I trusted her, I trusted her with my child, and she went through my home and went through my stuff,” said Williams. “There aren’t words. It’s just very unnerving.”

UrbanSitter said the best way to protect yourself from a situation like this is to look at a sitter or nanny’s referrals, experience and credentials. Also, give sitters a trial run while you are in the house.