Amanda Shea
Child protective services (CPS) in Ohio didn’t take too kindly to one grandmother’s supposed creative photos she took of her grandaughter — one in a roasting pan surrounded by potatoes and another with a pacifier duct-taped into the infant’s mouth.
After the grandmother, Jackie Sheaks, posted what she thought were silly snap shots of the baby to Facebook, a stunned (unnamed) online friend alerted CPS as well as the West Columbus sheriff about the pictures, and asked that both agencies check on the child’s well-being, Central Ohio’s 10TV reported.
Sheaks thought her pictures would be a hilarious hit, but the joke was on her.
“It started as just a joke,” Sheaks told 10TV. “We put a little tape on the pacifier because we were being silly. We wanted to share it with friends because everybody that knows us, knows we play around like that.”
A slew of online harassment ensued after the infamous pictures went viral, creating so much suffering for the grandmother that Sheaks’ husband said he and his wife may have to relocate.
No charges have been filed against the grandparents and Sheaks says she’ll never take photos like that again regardless of the humor she and her family members find in them. She’s learned her lesson, she says—not that there was anything wrong with the photos, but that other people are too uptight.
“What we think is funny, other people don’t,” she told 10TV.
