When Erika and Robert Burch went to do their shopping in Walmart one day, the last thing they expected to see was an outright display of child abuse.
“Please stop,” the couple heard the girl say. “I promise I won’t do it again. Please stop!”
When they turned, they saw a father dragging his daughter around by the hair.
According to an Express News report, the Texan couple took photos of the horrific scenario before coming up to the father, telling him to stop.
“Robert said, ‘Do you see what that guy is doing to that little girl?’” Erika wrote on her Facebook account. ““I turned around to see him dragging this little girl by the hair of her head!
“He had her hair wrapped around the buggy dragging her! She was saying ‘please stop, I promise I won’t do it again please stop!’
“I took my phone out, snapped pictures and then told him to let the little girl’s hair go. He told me to mind my own business, I said I’m not.
“Right now this little girl is my business and you need to let her hair go now.
“He said, ‘I grew up just fine’.”
A mother herself, Erika then called the police to report the incident. A policeman who happened to be in the store immediately came to investigate.
But instead of arresting the father, the police said that he couldn't do that because the girl had “no visible bruises," even though Erika showing the officers photo evidence of the abuse.
The officer was even reported saying the father has the right to discipline his children.
“Now this baby had to go home with this monster, think that nobody cared about her and it’s ok for this animal to pull her by the hair of her head,” Erika said.
On her Facebook post about the incident, Erika has uploaded all the photos she has taken inside Walmart.
The post has since accrued 21 thousand likes, 184 thousand shares, and over 13 thousand comments from outraged users.
In an ABC 13 report, Erika said that she has received some negative feedback for what she did meddling in other parents’ business.
“People are telling me I'm wrong for stepping up for this little girl, but you can discipline a child without dragging them by the hair on their head, especially in Walmart.”
Thankfully, Erika’s Facebook post has urged authorities to launch an investigation into the matter, citing the incident as child endangerment, according to New York Daily News.
Republished with permission from: theAsianparent Philippines
