It’s one story we cannot get enough of. Even words seem to be lost amongst these unbelievable images of Tanorexic mom Patricia Krentcil, who yesterday pleaded not guilty in a Newark court to charges of child-endangerment for allegedly putting her 5-year-old daughter in a stand-up tanning booth.
The 44-year-old tan fanatic was freed on $25,000 bail and retains custody of her kid. However, if she is found guilty on the charges, she could face ten years behind bars.
“Never in my life would I endanger my child by putting her in a tanning booth. I’m not dumb,” she told the judge.
Krentcil was arrested after a school nurse noticed the first-degree sunburns on her daughter Anna on April 24. The child said the burns came from going into a tanning booth, but Krentcil insists the child did not actually go in the booth and that she got sunburnt from playing outside.
She also claims that the school is blowing things out of proportion and that the story is “made up”.
Even Snooki, who has a love of tanning booths, has weighed in on this toasty tale, calling Krentcil’s tanning obsession crazy.
And, the New York Post is reporting that Krentcil is such a tanatic that she visits the City Tropic Tanning salon on Centre Street in Nutley roughly 20 times a month.
They write….
She has a $99 monthly pass — and has used that plan to char herself to a ghastly mahogany tint for the past three years.
“She’s totally innocent. Whatever they say happened didn’t happen,” Krentcil’s hubby, Rich, told The Post.
He then went on to deny she had severe tanorexia.
“She likes to tan, but I wouldn’t say she has a problem,” he said.
“She is tan. She enjoys doing it for herself and she enjoys tanning. It’s her business, pretty much. It’s not illegal to tan. People drink and smoke, and it’s not illegal.”
Even so, Krentcil will have to find a new enabler — the salon owner yesterday banned her for life.
“I don’t want her here anymore and deal with this nonsense,” said the owner, who would give his name only as Anthony.
Nevertheless, he backed her defense.
“The girl did not go in the booth,” Anthony said.
“The girl had sunburn on her arms from April 17; it was 90 degrees out.
“She’s a 5-year-old kid, she’d burn to death if she went into one of those booths. I have seven kids of my own. I wouldn’t let a girl in there.”
He also said that images of Krentcil appearing on television with a gruesome tan were probably due to spray tan — not from his tanning beds.
“The way she looks now, it’s not from here, she added some kind of spray to her face,” he said.
Krentcil was quickly becoming a laughingstock.
“As crazy as she looks, you think she would put her daughter in the booth — to take time away from herself?” joked John D., who was picking his high-school age daughter up from the salon
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What do you think?