The Lego store is not your babysitter

[crazylegs]

Actually, I think it's better to call the parents or give a warning first. I'm sure this happens frequently enough that if the police start getting too many calls as the first solution to the problem, they will get annoyed and stop responding quickly. They're much better if you've at least tried to solve the problem peaceably yourself.

Ex police chiming in here.

Abandoned children are an emergency - if the parents aren't around (i.e. little Johnny hasn't just wandered into the toy section by accident) then the police need to be called.

Admittedly there's always reason to put out a couple of tannoy announcements, but if after 5 minutes or so there's no response then the police need to be involved as not only are the children at risk, potentially the parents are too.

[Crossbow]

Warning : All Children Left Unattended will be given copious amounts of sugar and a free kitten.

"Double Shot of espresso and a puppy. THEN returned."

[Sapphire Silk]

Ex police chiming in here.

Abandoned children are an emergency - if the parents aren't around (i.e. little Johnny hasn't just wandered into the toy section by accident) then the police need to be called.

Admittedly there's always reason to put out a couple of tannoy announcements, but if after 5 minutes or so there's no response then the police need to be involved as not only are the children at risk, potentially the parents are too.

On second reading, I don't know what the hell I was originally thinking.

[crazylegs]

On second reading, I don't know what the hell I was originally thinking.

No worries, we all have brain farts from time to time

[dalesys]

No worries, we all have brain farts from time to time

Well then, I now know why the only thing my brain eats is beans.

[KellyHabersham]

"Double Shot of espresso and a puppy. THEN returned."

There's also "Unattended children will be fed to the bears" - from a sign in one of the gift shops at a wildlife park/sanctuary in northern Arizona.

[Aethian]

I think I said this story once before...but I don't remember if I posted it...

Scene... Mom and I at the 2007 Ionia Free Fair in Ionia MI.

First call over the loudspeeker: Attention, if your name is *name* and you misplaced a kid named *name* please meet in the Band Stand Office.

Second call over the loudspeeker: Attention, if your name is *name* and you have been lost by *name* please come to the Band Stand Office to be claimed.

Third call over the loudspeeker: Attention, *name* your child *name* is prepared to call Mommy's cell. Please come to the Band Stand Office.

Fourth call over the loudspeeker: Attention, *name* your Wife has been called by *name*. Please come to the Band Stand Office.

Fifth call over the loudspeeker: Attention, *name* your wife *name* is here with your son *name*. Please report to the State Police Station in the Band Stand Office, she's parked behind your car and wants a word with you.


Total time of all pages? About 50 minuets...guy was found drunk off his rear in the beer tent.

[cleorose]

When I worked at Disney (This would be 2006, summer and the winter), we had ALOT of parents that would leave little junior or ms junior at the pool at the hotel. I am talking about leaving a 5 year old at a pool that goes up to 9 feet deep in some places. Not just some chinzy wading pool. And while certain rooms CAN see the pool from the balcony outside their room, most cannot. 10 buildings to a hotel. Usually only 1 and 2 can see the pool. The other 8 cannot. And 9 and 10 are usually a good walk. How do we know the three kids had no parents watching them? 630 AM. Yes you read that right 630 AM in the morning. I worked graveyard and we didn't get off til 8 am. The lifeguards did not come on duty til 9am.

Kids had NO idea what room they were in. Their parents told them to just wait there til they got back. We called Disney PD right off the bat. They took their sweet time. About 20 minutes to get to the hotel. And then shortly thereafter called the police. The police do not have stations on disney property so thats another 10-15 minutes at least. In the time it took the cops to get there, and get the reports from everyone. And load the kids in the car, the parents SHOWED UP bitching they had only gone to the bathroom. And it couldn't have been more than 5 minutes.

They complained and got a bunch of comped stuff. I think it ended up being like 150 dollars worth of stuff from the hotel gift shop for the inconvience of us not watching their kids or whatever.

I joked with a coworker that since I had luggage later, I was gonna hope they were out so I could accidentally run them over with those little mini vans. (Think smart car size vans).

[Lace Neil Singer]

When I worked at the pet store, I was forever having that problem. I had a nice big sign up stating "This is a pet store, not a creche" which didn't do a thing as SCs don't read signs, but it did mean that after what transpired as a result of their stupidity, they couldn't then whine, "But... there's no sign!" This is what happened every time some idiot parent left their kid in the pet store while they went round the garden centre.

1. I call my supervisor on my walkie talkie.
2. Supervisor (female, btw) shows up, takes child(ren) to manager's office. Waits there with them.
3. I wait til parents show up. Wait a bit more so that they can panic when they realise that their child(ren) are not where they left them.
4. I approach negligent parents. I tell them that their kids are safe and being looked after by the supervisor. I call supervisor.
5. Supervisor shows up with kids, gives negligent parents an earbashing of epicness and tells them that if it happens again, we will call the police.

We never once had to call the police. XD

[boringscreenname]

We recently went to Ikea. We stopped at the restaurant inside to eat first before we started shopping. They have a little kids' area with toys, and a tv. We let our kids play after they were done eating and we had a table that was really close to the area.

Apparently someone decided to dump their three kids off there instead of at the childcare center. There was a girl who looked to be 8-12 and two little boys. The boys were screaming and yelling, fighting, hitting, stealing and throwing toys and being holy terrors. I walked around the restaurant to look for the kids' parents and couldn't find them, so we made our kids come back to the table, then left to do our shopping. All the other parents made their kids leave the area too. When we passed by the area on our way downstairs the kids were still there acting like terrors.