A mum has spoken of the terror she experienced after receiving a phone call informing her that her two-year-old daughter had been mistakenly collected from nursery by another adult. Jody Riley, 37, from Formby, said she was working at a nearby café on Wednesday, June 10, when staff from Kids Planet Crosby contacted her to say her daughter, Rosie, had been taken from the nursery in error before being safely returned.

Describing the moment she received the call, Jody told the Liverpool Echo: "My phone rang at around 2.20pm and it took a while for the staff member to tell me what had happened, but she eventually told me somebody had picked Rosie up and they were still investigating it.

"They let me know she was back at the nursery safe and everything felt like a blur from there. I had a panic attack and I had to try and calm myself down to go and get her. Getting that call is every parent's worst nightmare and I feel like I've had a taste of what that is like now."

According to Jody, she was initially told that another child's grandfather had mistakenly collected Rosie while she was asleep before driving away with her for around 10 minutes.

However, Jody has questioned that explanation after reviewing CCTV footage.

She said: "Rosie is a light sleeper and wakes up when you pick her up, so I've just been trying to piece everything together because none of it makes much sense to me.

"I don't understand how he was able to get through two security doors, enter the toddler room, pick up my sleeping child, and then leave the building, strap her into his car and drive off with her without anyone noticing it wasn't his child."

Jody said staff initially described the individual as "an old man" who had simply made a mistake. However, after viewing CCTV, she believes that account does not reflect what happened. She claimed: "There is no way he didn't know that wasn't his granddaughter. Rosie was fully awake."

Following the incident, Jody said she has made the decision to permanently remove Rosie from the nursery.She said: "Rosie won't be returning to the nursery and I'll be looking after her full-time for the foreseeable future.

"She'd only been there for a few months because we really struggled getting her a nursery place. Trying to balance work with looking after her will impact me massively because I won't be able to get her into another nursery now until at least September."

A spokesperson for Kids Planet said: "We can confirm that an incident occurred at our Crosby setting in which a child was mistakenly released to a grandparent who is known to staff, has passed all required security vetting and who is an approved collector for a different child, who was also onsite at the time.

"The child was returned safely to the nursery within minutes, and we are in direct continuous contact with the families involved to offer our sincere apologies and to provide ongoing support while a full investigation takes place."

The incident has sparked widespread reaction on social media, with many parents expressing concern over nursery safeguarding procedures.

One of our Residents on our Instagram page commented: "Doesn't matter if he was an old man or if he did or didn't know it was his grandchild, THE NURSERY failed to protect that child, failed basic safeguarding and by the sounds of it tried to downplay what actually happened. Name and shame them and get them shut down because wtf."

A parent shared their own experience, writing: "That nursery failed your child. I asked my grandad to pick up my daughter the other day but forgot to tell the nursery. Please believe they would not release her until they spoke to me. They wouldn't even make her come to the front door. This is the level of safeguarding that should be in ALL nurseries!!!"

A third Resident urged parents to be cautious, saying: "Listen any parents out there. If you can, keep your kids with you as much as possible, home educate them and don't trust anybody lightly. The narrative that we've been socially conditioned to send our kids away to strangers all day as a norm; it's totally backwards. Keep them in house by your side as much as possible and get out the system as best as you can. Look at this mess! People die for way less than this crap."

Another social media user claimed that Jody had shared a further update, alleging that "someone from the nursery has contacted her off duty and basically blew the whistle," and claiming the man "wasn't anyone's grandad."