Mother fined under stay-athome order

Ordered to pay $880 for leaving children with grandparents

A Simcoe, Ont., mother says she was fined $880 for dropping off three of her children at their grandparents' home for babysitting.

Natasha Kohl, a mother of four, told CTV News she had dropped off the three children at her in-laws' house in Delhi last weekend, so that she could do some grocery shopping.

Her fiance, she said, wasn't able to look after their children at that time.

“He wasn't able to help me and it was actually my birthday, so I wanted to get home so I could spend the night with him and my kids, so I took them to my father-inlaw,” she said.

When she returned to pick her kids up, they were having lunch with their uncle and cousins, who also live in the house. “So, I was with them as they were eating their pizza,” Kohl told CTV News.

Once they left the house, Kohl said she was pulled over by a provincial police officer.

“He turned on his lights and pulled us over and my daughter said, ‘Why is he pulling us over?' and I said, ‘I don't know,' so I waited for him to come to the window and that's when he said they had complaints of high traffic in the house,” she told Global News.

Once ticketed, she was informed that officials would be speaking to her father-inlaw about the complaint, as well.

A news release posted by the provincial police states that two people were charged with failing to comply with the Reopening Ontario Act.

“It was determined that police were contacted after several people were seen at the residence. Officers attending the area subsequently stopped a vehicle seen leaving and conducted an investigation,” Const. Ed Sanchuk said in a news release, posted by OPP's Norfolk county detachment.

Kohl, however, told the Global News that she had explained the situation to the officer. “He clearly watched me pick up my three kids from the house,” she added.