Babysitter Faces Child Abuse, Car Theft Charges After Crashing Vehicle

Oakland County Sheriff's detectives have submitted a warrant request to prosecutors seeking two additional charges against a Sterling Heights woman arrested Aug. 31 on drunken-driving charges in Farmington Hills after the department said she left a 16-month-old boy she had been babysitting unattended in his Rochester Hills home while leaving in the boy's mother's vehicle, which she then crashed in Farmington Hills.

The Oakland County Prosecutor's Office issued warrants on charges of unlawfully driving away in an automobile and fourth-degree child abuse against Natalie Jeanette Krisfalusi, 26, of Sterling Heights. 

According to the department, the complaint was sworn to in front of Magistrate J. Holtz over the weekend, who then signed the warrant. Krisfalusi was arraigned via video in front of Holtz, who ordered her to be held at Oakland County Jail on a $25,000 cash surety no 10 percent bond. Krisfalusi remains at Oakland County Jail. 

The mother of the 16-month-old boy arrived home Aug. 31 at the 300 block of Meadow Bridge to find her car missing from the driveway and no sign of Krisfalusi, whom she had hired to watch her child, according to the Oakland County Sheriff's Office.

The boy's mother had given the Krisfalusi her only key, the department indicated, and was unable to enter her home. When she called Krisfalusi's cell phone, she reached Farmington Hills Police, who informed her the babysitter had been arrested for driving while intoxicated after crashing the woman's car, but that her son was not inside the vehicle. 

According to the department, the woman had not given her babysitter permission to use her car and had her key hidden. 

Deputies arrived at the woman's house and forced their way inside the home, where the child was found safe and unharmed in a baby swing chair in the bedroom. The woman told deputies she had left her child in the babysitter's care at about 2 p.m. and at 8:30 p.m., a friend of the woman told deputies Krisfalusi and the child were seen at a nearby store. The woman told deputies Krisfalusi generally watches her child 4-5 times per week.