A daycare center in Minnesota reported significant vandalism on Wednesday following the circulation of a viral YouTube video by Nick Shirley, which accused the facility of fraudulent activities.

Staff members at the Nokomis Daycare Center in Minneapolis informed authorities about a break-in that occurred on Tuesday morning. This incident followed Shirley’s claims that the daycare was misusing public funds, alleging that the facility wasn’t actually providing care to children.

“Unfortunately, we discovered that vital documents, including children’s enrollment records and employee files, were missing. Checkbooks and checks had also been taken,” stated Nasrulah Mohamed, the center’s manager, during a press briefing.

Mohamed expressed concern, saying, “This is deeply troubling, and we’re unsure why our Somali community is being targeted. The situation escalated due to one individual’s video. We’ve been receiving threatening messages, including one immediately following the break-in.”

Shirley’s video specifically targeted daycare centers owned by Somali-Americans. This followed a broader investigation in the state where immigrants were implicated in a scheme involving the misuse of public funds meant for feeding children during the pandemic.

Multiple Somali-Americans were linked to the fraudulent “Feeding Our Future” non-profit but the ring leader was determined to be a white woman.

Mohamed said the backlash from the fallout has been brutal for the Somali-American community in Minnesota. 

“I want to say that there are hundreds of daycares out there, Somali daycares that are out there and we all help each our children and everyone in our community. We have high quality daycares and this is very sad news that one individual who made a false claim about fraud that is happening in the daycares helped engage everyone else to come and do this to us,” he told the public.

“We are not a part of any harmful things that are being said. We are, we have no problem with CCAP [Child Care Assistance Program] and our licensing has been good, even the inspections. I want to say no intimidation is going to stop us from what is happening and upgrading our community,” he added.