Children in Darkness

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It also brought another incident into my mind where one night, a customer told us that there was a baby left alone in the front seat of a car outside our building.  I sent a cashier to check, and sure enough, their was.  I was so pissed off.  I had the cashier stay with the child and car while I went into call the police, they arrived, forced the window down, which was not that hard, anyone could of done it, and then they had me go in and page anyone with that car license place number.  There were other shops in the same complex, so we were not even positive the parents were in our store. 

I paged,  after a couple minutes, a woman, casually takes her time walking up to me, with a hand full of stuff she was shopping for, and asked what was the page for.  I told her, the police were outside and about to take her child from the car, she sat her stuff down, and walked out casually.  Me, I would of been running out.  Well, first of all, I would never leave my baby in the car, had three, and never did such a thing.

She got outside and was telling the police she was just doing some quick shopping.  But I tell you, it was about 20 minutes from the time I called the police to when they arrived,  then about another 10 minutes for her to answer to the page,  and who the heck knows how long she had been in the store before that.  Anyone could of forced that door open and taken the child.  We should be grateful that the woman who came in and told us about it was honest.

The police asked her about what if she had come out and seen child gone, as they were able  to open window, so anyone could of.  She did not seem too concerned.  I was upset when they let the lady leave with child, I would of taken her into custody and called the other parent to pick up child.  It made me more angry that the police just let her go home…

Think for a moment, how many children are out there that we call “Latch Hook Kids”, because they carry a house key with them so they can get into their homes after school, and they will be most likely the only ones there.  I understand parents need to work, I do, especially in this economy now days.  I for a fact was one of these children growing up, getting out of school, picking up my little sister from a friends house, and then bringing her home, taking care of her till my parents got home from work, and during the summer, I had to take care of her from morning till late afternoon.  So I know, sometimes parent have to do what they can, so they can keep their jobs, and earn and income, but my god, at least know where your child is at night!

I pray, that never in my lifetime to I see such a thing again, and such a small child so late, and all alone, out on the side of the freeway by themselves ever again…

It just, oh I cant even think of a good word, to express how I feel about these parents.  And so I guess I ask this question to the void of space, and say to each of you parents out there,

” WHERE IS YOUR CHILD TONIGHT”=