Mother leaves 2 year old in Walmart

In Walmart?!?!? Why not at a shelter or maybe even a church or something. How odd. Surely she could have gotten some type of Gov. help, HUD housing, WIC and food stamps. I can't see how she could have been so bad off as to have to dump a 2 year old just because she was broke.

Very sad and the way the economy is going there will be more incidents like this.

That is so sad! I don't know how she could do it just walk away like that. I couldn't do it. A few years ago I was in walmart and was going through the produce section and there was a baby sleeping in a stroller. No one else was in the produce section (late at night)I stayed there for 20 minutes no sign of a parent anywhere. Finally I took the child to customer service who started paging for a parent and called cps. Finally after 20 minutes of them paging they looked through serveilance cams and found out who the mother was and someone spotted her in the check out lane!!! She claims she forgot that they (the child's father was with her) had brought the baby with them......How can you forget that when you are pushing the baby in a stroller??????? A few days after this I was at work in the bakery of a grocery store when the same mother sam stroller and everything was wandering in and out of the bakery section looking around like she was trying to see if anyone was watching her. So I went up to her and asked if she needed any help. She stammered no and headed to the door.

That is sad, but I am sure we will be seeing more of this. People are getting into situations that they cannot get out of. I would hate to be in one that made me have to make a decision of what to do with my family, or let them starve and live homeless.

That really is sad but I just don't think the mother is running on all cylinders. There is such a thing as child welfare and different places to get advice and the help you need. I feel sorry for anyone who can't feed their kids, I was a single mom for years and we sure didn't have anything extra but I feel that leaving your child in this situation at Walmart screams mental issues to me. Sorry but that's my opinion.

I don't get it, why leave the child in a store? Why not take the child to family services instead? I can understand how some people just can't raise their child but to abandon it in a store or a park doesn't make any sense to me at all. Just take the child to family services and make sure that someone is looking after the child's interests. They don't put you in jail because you can't provide for your child. I will never understand people and how they think and I try not to stress about it anymore as it gets me nowhere and I still don't understand people who do this. I feel for this child, mostly because when it grows older it will know that the mother abandoned it at a store of all places. The child will have a lot of problems when older, knowing it wasn't wanted. I hope he gets the help he needs when he is old enough to understand.

It is really sad that the mother thought she had to leave her son at a Wal-Mart. With the boy not having any reaction I'll bet she is an illegal emigrant and didn't know that there was some help for her with some agency. She may already be out of the area. She apparently did the next best thing for him in her mind.

It's sad that she left him there. But being from another country she might not have known about the help that was available to her. She might not have known what else to do and thought that Wal-mart was a good place because it's full of people. I hope everything is sorted out and all is well.

I know this isn't quite the same but there have been many instances here in Australia of parents leaving their children in the car while they go to the casino. I've experienced something similar. I found 2 little girls sitting on the floor in my bookstore, happily reading books. I didn't think much of it and assumed the parent was in the store and they weren't any trouble so I left them. They were still there half an hour later and there was no-one else in the store. I asked them where there mother was and they just looked at me. They looked a bit worried. I asked if they knew where their Mum was and they just nodded. I chatted some more to them about the books they were reading and eventually discovered that their Mum was shopping and had told them to stay in the bookstore till she came back. Soon after, she called to them from the front of the store...they ran out and I didn't get a chance to speak to her. In the same shopping complex, in the big department store, kids were often found running amok in the toy department where their parents had left them while they shopped elsewhere. There was an occasion where the police were called in and the parents were actually shopping at another shopping centre!

This is sad on so many levels. It is sad that a child is abandoned under any circumstances. But if the letter is true, it is also sad that a mother would feel so desperate that she could leave her child to wander around in a store full of strangers. And then there is the whole idea of someone coming to America, the land of opportunity, and being so beaten down by poverty that they cannot feed their child. I hope the child is reunited with his family somehow.

OMG! If this is really true, I'm very heartbroken that the mother felt it was in the child's best interest to leave him in a store with a note explaining why she did this. I'm betting the poor mother went thru hell and beyond trying to figure out how to feed her son and find a place to live. There are shelters and alot of other services available for her but she more than likely didn't know this being she's not from the area. I pray that she is found and given the help she needs instead of being arrested for child abandonment for this mother is more than likely crying herself sick for what she felt was the only choice for her son.

Hi estherlou! That is really sad! If it was really true as stated in the letter, then I do think that the mother felt that it is better to leave him than stay with her starving. I just hope that the mother will find work and come to her senses and get her child back again. Take care and God bless!

I feel bad for that little boy. All alone and nobody to love him. If she had nothing to give him why not drop him off at the hospital or police station to explain her situation. Now she is liable for abandonment. Hopefully someone comes to claim that little boy but if not they will find him a good home to go to so he doesn't have to feel alone.

that is sad.here in the usa even if ur not born in the usa and not a us citizin you can still get help like welfare and housing.why couldnt she of done that.there is still help.the poor child.i feel bad for him.

This kind of story makes me cry. There are plenty of agencies who would help. I for one would help donate money to this lady so she could buy food. My heart hurts for these kind of people that feel they have no chance at all. She must have relatives somewhere that would help or atleast take them in. I was an unwanted child but got a second chance by being placed for adoption. My life was good and is even better today.

she should have her tail locked up there is to many people here that want kids that can't have them for her just to leae it like that

This is pretty sad and I hope that the note was true because I don't want to boy to be a child that was kidnapped and saw his mother die or something. I think being left because the mother does not have any money or a place to live is better than watching a parent die.

That is really sad and that picture of him just broke my heart. I hope that if they don't find his mother that they find a good family for him. I really hope that he does grow up knowing what his heritage is. I can't believe this. But this happens all the time. The good thing is that at least she didn't leave him on the streets where he would have been in danger.

I think she did what she had to, at leaste she left him were he was sure to be found. People always get so upset when a child is found on the road or worse. I have to say she as leaste tried to find a place, that she felt people would look after him. It is all very sad. Since she left a note, bottles,toys and diapers, she obviousely cared, but how sad she had to resort to such measures to get help for him.I hope they are able to find a good safe home for him, where he will be safe and secure. I hope she is also able to find some safety and security as well. She must be so desperate, I also hope she is able to forgive her act of abandoment of her son, and not hunted by the loss of him forever. I can not even imagin feeling I had to resort to such a thing.

That is so sad. I feel for the boy. It would be very traumatic to be left by your mother in a store not knowing if she will come back for you. Giving him up might have been what she saw as her only option but she could have gone about it in a better way than leaving him alone in a walmart.