Florida woman takes babysitting gig on Care.com. Then she arrives and sees who she’s babysitting: ‘He’s wearing a bonnet’

A Florida woman says she thought she had landed an unusually easy babysitting gig off Care.com: $50 an hour to watch a 9-year-old boy whose regular sitter had canceled at the last minute.

But when Heather (@heathercelestem) rolled up to the house, she says the “child” who answered the door was wearing a suit, carrying a briefcase, and acting like the person who had hired her.  

In a TikTok video recounting the job from roughly three years ago, Heather says there were no red flags raised beforehand. It wasn't until the 9-year-old jetted out of the house that she realized she actually had no idea what she'd signed up for.

The TikTok has amassed over 1.2 million views, prompting Heather to post several follow-up videos.

The switch-up

In her first video, Heather outlines how the situation unfolded. First, a 9-year-old boy said thank you to her.

“Hey Heather, thank you so much for coming on such short notice,” she recalls him saying. “We really appreciate it.”

Thinking it was cute that he was playing dress-up as his dad, Heather followed him inside. That's when things took a bizarre turn. 

She says they entered the back bedroom where they saw a grown man sitting in a Pack ‘n Play (a collapsible travel crib) wearing a diaper and a bonnet. “He just stares blankly at me and grunts,” she recalls.

The story gets weirder

According to Heather, the boy introduced the grown man as his “son.” He told her the man was severely developmentally delayed and couldn't be left alone. “Before I process anything, he leaves,” she says, remembering how she heard a car peel out of the gravel driveway. 

“I'm just standing in this room panicking,” she says. “I have no idea what to do.”

In subsequent follow-up videos, Heather recalls how she quickly left the house—but not before taking photos of the man, the house, and the property in case she needed evidence later. One of the photos had several parked vehicles in it, including a “creeper van” alongside a large pole barn.

@heathercelestem

♬ original sound – Heather

The mystery is finally explained

After leaving the house, Heather says she called her mom “freaking out” and asked whether she should call the police. Her mother pointed out that she hadn't been hurt or stopped from leaving. But Heather was worried about the 9-year-old. She ultimately decided to go to a local police station. 

That's where the mystery of the house was finally cleared up.

She says she had barely started to describe the incident when an officer immediately recognized the situation.

Apparently, the folks involved were known to them for making prank videos online. The officer found the whole thing hilarious, “cracking up the whole time” and even calling other officers into the room to hear the story. But Heather wasn't laughing.

“I get it. It's funny,” she says. “But like, I am traumatized.”

Then the prank video surfaces

About six months later, Heather says her friend's boyfriend stumbled across footage of the prank on his TikTok For You Page and recognized her. She was apparently part of a prank compilation showing the same setup.

A year and a half after that, she says she came across one of the men involved on a dating app, where she matched with him and met him on a date to confront him. She pointed out that she hadn't been paid for the supposed babysitting gig. The man subsequently Venmo'd her $60 or $70 of the $200 she was owed.

When he asked whether she was going to stay mad at him for the rest of the night, Heather says she stood up and said, “There is no rest of the night.” Then she left the bar.

Can someone secretly record you for a prank?

It depends. In Florida, where this incident occurred, consent is generally required before recording a private conversation. Secretly filming someone is typically not illegal unless it breaks voyeurism laws that prohibit nonconsensually recording someone dressing or undressing.

Heather said she didn't sue the men involved with the prank, but whether she would have been successful had she sued depends on how the men recorded her and how they used the video.

If you believe you were secretly recorded, make sure to save any screenshots, messages, links, and copies of the video before it is deleted. You can also report the content to the platform where it was posted and, if the recording happened somewhere you reasonably expect privacy, consider speaking with law enforcement or a lawyer about whether state privacy or recording laws apply.

Years later, Heather can laugh at the story. But in the moment, she says there was nothing funny about being lured into an unfamiliar home under false pretenses. “I thought that I was going to die,” she recalls. “Genuinely, I thought I was going to die.”

Buzz News reached out to Heather via TikTok message.