The “Nightmare Nanny”, Diane Stretton, has watched as the media has told her story from every angle they could find. That story has included details about her involvement in previous lawsuits, other people who claim she defrauded them, and even chasing her down as she slept in her car outside a police station. The media even uncovered the fact that her father left her nothing in his will.
Now Diane Stretton is speaking out, attempting to put her own spin on the events surrounding her firing/quitting her employ by the Bracamonte family as a live-in nanny.
“Well, first of all, I wasn’t fired, unless you can be fired after you quit. I quit two days before they fired me,” Stretton told KNX Newsradio. “And I gave 30 days of notice, which we had agreed to.”
The Bracamontes say that one day Stretton suddenly just refused to work, which led to their warning and firing her. Stretton tells a different story.
“Second of all, on the refusal to work, there’s only two days, and this was after I’d been there for 90 straight days without a day off, that I didn’t work. And those two days I had the flu so bad I was considering calling an ambulance. Again, this was after 90 days where I hadn’t had a day off. When I was working there, I didn’t get lunch breaks, I didn’t get coffee breaks, I didn’t get any holidays. Basically, I was working 24/7,” she said.
Stretton has been characterized as a con artist, getting free room and food from a family, disturbing their home life, and providing nothing in return.
“It’s exactly the opposite,” she responds. “Anyone that would bring someone into their home and give them, whether the value of the room and board was $700 or $900 is kinda immaterial, that’s a trivial value to exchange for 24/7 of doing their bidding, whatever they want, doing cooking, doing heavy house cleaning, taking care of kids. I was using a lot of skills a lot of people would not have had. And to expect all of that labor and trade for only room and board when I didn’t have access to the laundry room hardly ever, I didn’t have access to the bathroom hardly ever, the air conditioning wasn’t on, I think they’re the con artists.”
Why would anyone go to Craigslist to find a nanny? http://t.co/AZthEPjilH
— Margaret Manzi (@mostquiet) July 2, 2014
Stretton says she regrets ever going to work for the Bracamontes.
“They were the ones that were trying to exploit me, as if I was some poor migrant worker from a foreign country that they could just exploit and work 24/7. I don’t know who, if they knew the job ahead of time, I certainly wouldn’t have taken it if I had known what they really had in mind,” Stretton added.
Stretton also said the family put a bike lock on their refrigerator door, and had their three children leave cans of dog food outside her bedroom door, as if that is what she could eat.
“Right after she served that [termination] letter, she gave the kids three cans of dog food and told them to put it outside my room for my food,” she said. “And so little Ralphie, four-years-old, knocks on the door and says, ‘Diane, your dinner’s here, we got dog food for you’.”
@ConwayShow why are you calling them a "nice family" when the mom sounds crazy and vindictive, having a 4 yr old give the nanny dog food?
— . (@anotheraka) July 2, 2014
A judge has said that the Bracamontes did not terminate Stretton’s employment in a legal manner, and that she must be taken through the usual eviction process before she can be forced out of their home.
Stretton has said that she will leave as soon as possible, but is basically homeless and wants to get a shower and gather her things at the Bracamonte home on July 4. She demands that the press camped out at the home be gone before she does.
The family says they are leaving on July 2 to go on a cruise and will leave their home in the care of relatives. But there may be nothing they can legally do to force her out sooner.
“She has absolutely every right to stay in the house at this time,” their own attorney said. “Under the law in California (eviction) can take 30 to 45 days.”
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