Man's Camera Tapes Neighbor Abusing Kids

M I L W A U K E E, Feb. 18, 2004 -- William Brookins hoped his new wireless security system would assist him in protecting his home and business, but what it revealed rocked him to the core.

After the Milwaukee businessman installed the system Sunday, he saw on his monitor images of two little girls standing still with their arms raised above their heads.

"At first, it kind of scared me. I was wondering if it was some kind of religious ritual," Brookins said.

Brookins, 57, had been been flipping back and forth between two of his cameras when he realized his own wireless receiver was picking up a camera signal from someone else's home. The crossed video signals were possibly coming from a neighbor's baby monitor.

Brookins said he continued to watch the girls, whom he did not recognize, in an effort to figure out what they were doing.

Then, he discovered why the girls had been standing in such an uncomfortable position for more than an hour and a half. Someone else was in the room with them.

The man said he watched a woman hit one of the girls when she tried to sit down out of apparent exhaustion.

Brookins said the woman hit the younger girl, just 2 years old, in the stomach. Later, she returned with a stick, striking the older one, age 4, in the head.

"I definitely decided to call the police when the child was struck. It was a little too much for me there," Brookins said.

But there wasn't much the man could tell police. He didn't know where the girls lived or exactly how his security system picked up their images.

Police said they were determined to find the girls with the information they had after responding to Brookins' overnight call.

"They found out that the radius of the signal was about 75 to 150 feet in an urban area," said Sgt. Kenneth Harris of the Milwaukee Police Department.

Harris said officers used that information to canvass the area.

Police Lt. John Andrews said officers searched through the night, going door to door, asking residents to reveal their children. "We checked numerous residences and everyone was cooperative … as cooperative as they could be at five in the morning," Andrews said.

Eventually Harris said officers found the girls and the woman suspected of hitting them earlier that night. Police arrested Brookins' neighbor, 39-year-old Theresa Smith, on suspicion of child abuse. Today, she was charged with physical abuse of a child. If convicted, she will face up to six years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Police say Smith, whom Brookins had never met, was a foster mother to the two girls in the security video. She was also raising one other foster child and three children of her own in the same home, authorities say.

Denise Revels Robinson, director of the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare, says social workers made a routine visit to Smith's home three weeks ago.

"There were no concerns about the care the children were receiving up until this time," Robinson said.

Child welfare workers now have custody of all six children who were living in Smith's home while they investigate. Smith remains in police custody and is expected to appear in court Thursday.

Brookins, who owns a snow plow company, says he bought the security system in order to protect his plows, which he parks outside his home.

The security cameras are trained on his plows, so he can record anyone stealing or damaging them. Brookins records the feed on his VCR, so he has a video record for the police and insurance.

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