PLANTATION, Fla. — A woman called 911 after finding her 2-year-old daughter crying inside a dark and empty South Florida child care center.
Stephanie Martinez found the KinderCare Child Care Center in Plantation locked up when she arrived Tuesday afternoon to pick up her daughter.
News outlets report that she called the girl's aunt to see if she had the child. That's when she saw the little girl peering out the window and called 911.
“She is inside the daycare. She just came up to the door...she’s crying. She’s inside by herself," Martinez told the dispatcher, according to news station WPLG.
Police and fire rescue crews arrived and were able to force the doors open and let the child out.
Martinez told the news station that her daughter was “shocked. She just came straight to me...would not let me go.”
It's unclear how the child got locked inside and how long she was in the building before her mother arrived.
KinderCare released a statement that it takes all issues of safety seriously.
In the statement, acquired by NBC Miami, the daycare wrote, in part, "While we’re thankful the child was quickly found and was safe, this incident should not have happened."
The company wrote that it will be notifying state licensing and child protective services officials and that the staff members involved will be placed on administrative leave while authorities investigate.
"Nobody should ever go through this," Martinez told the news station. "You pay for trust and they completely voided that. I have no words, I'm still in shock right now."
10 Tampa Bay's Andrea Chu contributed to this report.