Mom In Trouble For Allowing Daughter, 5, To Tan At Salon
Updated 05/02/12 - 4:35 p.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A former Chicago area woman is facing charges after allegedly allowing her 5-year-old daughter to tan at a salon.
Patricia Krentcil, who has spent a lifetime tanning and whose skin is frighteningly brown, is charged with child endangerment, after her daughter Anna showed up at school with a sunburn.
When asked how she got it, Krentcil said her daughter, who was 5 years old at the time, told the school nurse "I go tanning with mommy," according to a report on CBS New York's website. Anna has since turned 6.
Krentcil, 44, now lives in New Jersey. She formerly lived in far northwest suburban Cary in the 1990s. She had a few run-ins with law enforcement back then, including charges of DUI and another incident in which she was charged with assault for scratching and biting a cab driver, according to police records.
According to CBS New York, police were called to the girl's elementary school and Krentcil was arrested.
Krentcil denies the charge, saying she "would never permit" her daughter to go tanning.
"There's no room, A," she said. "B, I would never permit it. C, it didn't happen," she said.
Krentcil said her daughter's burn actually came from playing outside. In court today, she said she was innocent of the charges.
In New Jersey, anyone under the age of 14 is prohibited from using tanning salons.
As CBS 2's Roseanne Tellez reports, Krentcil's former neighbors in Cary said they're not surprised she's run into trouble with the law again.
"She was at The Kelsey Road House a few years ago, and apparently she was drunk, and she was taking a cab home, and she got into an altercation with the cab driver," former neighbor Mike White said.
That was in 1997, when Patricia Krentcil, then Silverstein, was charged with biting a Crystal Lake taxi cab driver.
Krentcil used to live on Bayberry Drive in Cary.
Before he even heard about the allegations Krentcil let her daughter get into a tanning booth, White recalled Krentcil's love of sun tanning, and her history of odd behavior.
"Her kids would be outside with no clothes on, and she'd be in the back sunning herself," White said. "It was a pretty sad situation. I felt sorry for the kids."
Another neighbor remembered Krentcil and her husband leaving their house in shambles when they moved out.
