Day care aide Nicole Noble admits leaving two children at Bay Shore mall, gets 5 years probation

A Brooklyn day care aide who pleaded guilty to child endangerment charges after abandoning two young children at a Bay Shore mall was sentenced Thursday to 5 years of probation and was barred from working as a child care provider.

State Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro also ordered Nicole Noble, 35, to undergo a psychological evaluation.

Noble told police that she left two children in her care alone on Dec. 3, 2014, "for a few minutes" at the Westfield South Shore Mall "to teach them a lesson" after they had misbehaved by playing hide-and-seek, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said Noble left the two alone "for a lot longer than a few minutes."

Security staff at the mall found the 2-year-old boy and 3- year-old girl playing unattended about 30 minutes after mall surveillance showed them leaving a Macy's without Noble, police said.

Noble, of 39-23 Avenue I in the Flatlands section of Brooklyn, was working for Elite Christian Day Care, a business her mother owns, authorities said. She had returned to Brooklyn without the children, authorities said.

Noble was charged with two counts each of felony abandonment of a child and misdemeanor acting in a manor injurious to a child. An order of protection also was issued keeping Noble from the children.