UPLAND, Calif. — A couple in California are living what they describe as a “nanny nightmare.”
Marcel and Ralph Bracamonte fired their live-in nanny three weeks ago after she refused to work or even come out of her room, according to KCBS.
In March, Marcella Bracamonte placed an ad on Craigslist looking for a retiree to watch her three children and help around the house in exchange for room and board.
The couple said the first few months with the nanny “were good,” but she soon stopped working and complained of health issues.
They decided to ask 64-year-old Dianne Stretton to leave. But she refused to go.
“She said, ‘if you want me to go, you’ll need to evict me. I have rights,’” Marcella Bracamonte said.
They said they served her with legal papers, but they turned out to be the wrong legal papers. For the time being, officials told the couple the nanny can come and go as she pleases.
“They told me it was now a civil matter,” Bracamonte said, “and I have to [legally] evict her. So this lady is welcome inside my house, anytime she wants, to eat my food anytime she wants and harass me basically. I’m now a victim in my home and it’s completely legal.”
A judge also ruled in the nanny’s favor because he said Bracamonte did not fill out a three-day quit notice correctly. He also said they would have to fill out the legal paperwork again.
The Bracamontes said they tried everything to get the unwanted nanny to leave, even turning off the cable and internet and locking the refrigerator at night.
But that only made things worse, the couple said.
Instead of leaving, the couple said Stretton threatening to sue them for breach of contract, wrongful termination and false imprisonment.
The couple claimed they recently discovered that Stretton had been involved in 37 lawsuits and had even sued several of her own family members.
Source: KCBS
