Abandon All Hope All Ye Who Abandon Your Children
(One customer repeatedly leaves her six-year-old in the store for hours at a time. The kid would try to tear the controllers off our demo machines, throw game boxes, and sometimes rip down entire displays. After a particularly busy morning in the holiday season, the customer walks her son in, and then makes to leave.)
Me: “Ma’am, you’ve forgotten your child.”
Woman: “I’ll be right back. He’ll be fine.”
Me: “Ma’am, I’m sorry but you can’t leave your child here unattended.”
Woman: “I’m just going to be fifteen minutes. Watch him for me.”
Me: “Ma’am, we are not a daycare and I cannot assume responsibility for your kid. I see kids dragged out of the store screaming and crying because their parents won’t buy them something, and I have no way of knowing if a kid is being a brat or being abducted by a random stranger.”
Woman: “You’re telling me that you’d let my kid get taken?”
(I sigh, because that usually is enough to scare the parent into watching their kid better. My manager, who had been dealing with customers but had been paying attention, called out from behind the counter.)
Manager: “Ma’am, if you leave your child here I’m going to call the social services and report that the child’s been abandoned.”
(The customer’s eyes widen. She grabs her child by the arm and drags him out.)
Me: “Can we even do that?”
Manager: “No idea, but she doesn’t know that.”
