Lexington, Kentucky (The Weekly Vice) -- Tanuja R. Patel, a 37-year-old Lexington, Kentucky woman was arrested and charged Saturday with wanton endangerment after investigators say she left a 3-year-old child in a hot car for 45 minutes while she went shopping.
More of an outrage however was a department store's refusal to contact 911 when witnesses found the child locked alone inside the vehicle.
According to police, a couple passing through the parking lot of a Lexington, Kentucky Bed Bath and Beyond spotted a 3-year-old child abandoned in a hot vehicle onSaturday.
Investigators say the couple entered the store and asked employees of the store to call 911, but the store refused, stating that it was against company policy to get involved with matters out in the parking lot.
Witnesses told police that they informed the store that a child was locked inside a hot car and needed help, but when they asked the store for a phone, it refused again, stating that matters outside the store were not it's concern. Store management reinforced this sentiment to authorities later.
Eventually someone did find a phone and contacted police, who arrived a short time later. Lexington police were forced to break the vehicle's glass in order to remove the child. The mother was also eventually found and was arrested on charges of Wanton Endangerment.
Responding to public outrage over the incident, Bed Bath & Beyond issued this statement:
"The customer did ask the store to contact the authorities. The store suggested that the customer, who had witnessed the situation, contact 911. We are pleased that the matter was addressed in a timely manner and will use this incident as a training opportunity."
The Weekly Vice Opinion:
So a kid is out boiling in a heated car on a hot Kentucky day - and Bath Bath & Beyond can only bring themselves to consider it a training opportunity? Are they kidding?
If it were me, I'd be half tempted to pull the fire alarm, thus clearing out the store and summoning police immediately, since I have little patience with starched-panty blowhards like this.
What is the biggest outrage to me is the heartless, unapologetic, unconcerned response out of corporate management who's executives seem to have forgotten that people shop their stores, not "consumers".
Thanks but no thanks, this consumer will buy his super plush, double length bath towels from somewhere else. Throwing money at a business like this just seems like throwing another log on the idiot fire, IMHO.
Danny Vice
The Weekly Vice
http://www.theweeklyvice
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the most amazing part of this whole story is that we have appeared to have actually found someone who DOES NOT HAVE A CELL PHONE???...what kind of people ARE these??...how long as it been since you've personally seen someone without a cellphone in their hand, texting or whatever as they walk along--oblivious to everything else in their path/vision/world??...let me understand this--a person has a parking lot emergency...they have no cell phone (miracle #1)...they run back into the store, apparently passing NO ONE WITH A CELL PHONE in the parking lot(miracle #2)??...they ask the store staff to call 911 and then sit down and cry when the staff won't help them...what? is there NO ONE IN THE STORE WITH A CELL PHONE THEY CAN ASK (miracle #3)??...i can see both sides of the story, but what i canNOT understand is how, on an average shopping day, the good samaritans were able to encounter an astounding (by today's standards) number of people without cell phones...simply amazing...most bed/bath stores are in strips or malls...it is not "their" parking lot...they are not responsible for, nor do they apparently want to be associated with, whatever goes on IN the parking lot...it's simply a liability issue...suppose the baby dies and b/b had gotten involved...b/b is ripe for a lawsuit because they "didn't help fast or thoroughly enough"...you get the point...
Bye bye BBB
The liability point is incorrect. Had the store called as soon as they were made aware of the child in the car, there would be no liability if the child died. However, in this case, since they were informed and refused to render aid, if the child did succumb, they would have incurred liability in that they failed to act on behalf of the child. As for
BBB not caring about what goes on out on the parking lot, just let 4-5 motorhomes or semi's park out there killing 20-30 parking spaces and see how fast BBB calls 911 about unauthorized parking. Finally, their statement about using this as a training opportunity...let's hope it is exactly that...for a new group of managers and employees.
Every summer, we see where children die in hot cars all around the country, left there to literally cook in the heat because their parents either "forgot" the kid was in the car or because they "were only going to be a minute" in the store. What we need to do here is strengthen the penalty for this kind of thing with mandatory jail sentences in un-airconditioned prisons for the parents. There is such a thing as being so stupid and ignorant that it rises to the level of a felony.
The store is not responsible. The witnesses were responsible. If they could walk into the store, they can dial 911.
Seriously... they walked into the store to CALL 911, however the store refused. Refused to call, refused to let them call on their line.
So if your kids were on fire, burning and someone ran into the store begging someone to call 911, you'd be alright if they yawned and walked away stating that it wasn't their problem?
Retarded people sure seem to me out in force
Well....They're not called Bed,Bath Beyond for nothing. What most people don't realize is the full moniker of the company. It's
Bed,Bath,Beyond Common Sense & Decency.
Since the entire United States has become so litigious, responsibility for calling 911 rests solely on the "passing customers" that observed the child in the car. Did you want the store or its employees to face a lawsuit for interfering? In this area, if you call 911 from a cell phone, the 911 system "locks" your telephone, preventing you from making other calls.
I like the weekly vice comment, pull the fire alarm. it would certainly get things moving.
How many of us stand in line at these places while clerks talk to each other while supposedly waiting on us as we are forced to listen to NON ESSENTIAL CHATTER! It's all over the country and Bed Bath and Beyond management has the audacity to say it doesn't get involved with things outside the store?
What is their policy on clerks using cell phones while waiting on customers? None? Couldn't the clerk end a cell phone and please don't say no one in the staff had one!
How often do we have to suffer listening to clerks of their cell phones while at the check out?
Bad Breath and Beyond is shameful and contributed to the possible death of this child.
Further, we can almost start taking bet as to how many children will die in hot cars in the summer of '09. It ain't gettin' better out there folks.
I WILL NEVER SHOP AT A BBB IF THIS IS THE WAY THEY TREAT HUMAN LIFE!!!
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