I am PISSED at Walmart

What follows is the text from an email I sent in to Walmart. I am very disappointed with the situation described below, and I'm curious as to if my view here is extreme or normal. Tell me what you think.

Original Message:

On 7/11/02, at approx. 9:30 pm, my 18 year old son witnessed a minor (approx. 12 years old) being sexually abused by an adult in the mens room. He reported this to a manager, who confirmed that 2 people were in the stall but would not press further with investigating due to privacy concerns. The two were observed a short time later leaving the store and the child was overheard by an employee calling the man 'daddy'. I realize that your corporation probably has no clearly defined procedure for a situation like this and if not, that needs to change. I spoke with the County Attorney (Pike County, Ky), who felt that Walmart really dropped the ball on this one. If a customer reports child abuse, ESPECIALLY abuse of a sexual nature, then Walmart should be take action by identifying the abuser and at least getting a license plate number to give to the authorities. Of course, I concede that the customer who witnesses the abuse must be the one willing to make a statement to the authorities, as Walmart cannot justify such action based on hearsay. In this particular case, my son was willing to do so, but Walmart was not willing to take further action. I spoke with the night manager and I am satisfied that he did all he could do within the legal limits of the law and corporate policy in this situation. You can call me old fashioned if you like, but I believe that Walmart has a MORAL obligation to its customers and the community to provide its employees with a clear set of policies regarding this type of issue. Although my son and I intend to do everything in our power to help the authorities in this situation, there is a child out there today who is being sexually abused. He has no hope of seeing this abuse end, no way to be counseled back into normal society. Statistically speaking, he will probably be a perpetrator of sexual abuse as an adult. The probability that he will develop homicidal tendencies will increase exponentially. By taking no action, it is very probable that your corporation has assisted in the creation of another predator of children. You had a chance to break this cycle and you blew it. I'm doing everything I can to try to help this child. I hope that in the future, Walmart will do the same. PLEASE change your policies.

Now that pisses me off. WTF do they think they're doing? Walmart people are basically uncaring, I mean this is indescribable.

That kind of policy is inexcusable, and you are doing the right thing!

When a child is being violated in any way, especially abuse of a sexual nature, everything should be done to protect the rights of the child. The issues of child abuse have improved over the years, but it is still FAR from being solved, and I am sorry, Wal-Mart is part of the problem not the solution.

Now it will take many, many years for this child to heal, get to know what love is, and will proboably suffer for life. In my opinion, since Wal-Mart clearly did not do what it could WHEN they should have (like right away), they are just as laible as those men for covering things up in the name of "privacy." ***** their privacy! Are those men interested in the privacy of the child? The answer to that should be obvious.

NO child should suffer, and that really, really pisses me off!

Hey thats messed up. That shouldn't happend but wadda you know its Kentucky

Quote:

---

Originally posted here by mrkangaroo
Hey thats messed up. That shouldn't happend but wadda you know its Kentucky

---

So can I assume that NY is perfect and has no perverts? Get real, man...this problem is nationwide and I really don't appreciate your narrow-minded comment about my home state. Get some manners, dude!

You see. Nobody can take a joke anymore. Relax man. No offense to nobody. Just testing the waters.

Apology accepted....you gotta understand I'm pretty emotional about this one....that was an experience that MY son will never forget witnessing so it's personal to me. Give me a couple of days too cool off and I'll give you some REAL good Ky one-liners. PEACE!

allenb1963

I can understand your concern. It is not only the moral obligation of the store but commonsense would have dictated that once something like this had been identified and the person observed, something should have been done to identify them so the authorities could at least investigate. A licence plate of a car at least.

Unfortunately we live in a world where people are all too commonly turning a blind eye for fear of repercussions, civil lawsuits, protracted court cases and even possibly in this case, bad publicity for the business concerned.

I am in law enforcement and I understand the frustration situations like this present on a willing witness who get no support where they expect it.

C'mon get your morals straight. This is Wal~Mart you guys are talking about. If they went ahead and took action on this report, the guy might have not bought anything. That would be one less sale Wal~Mart would have. If you told the manager the guy was sticking merchandise down the kids pants, that would be a different story. They would have their security team, and the police there in less than 5 minutes. By the way.. Wal~Mart has their own security team in plain clothing walking around the store at all times. They are trained to deal with all situations.

Can I make one other comment:

He reported this to a manager, who confirmed that 2 people were in the stall but would not press further with investigating due to privacy concerns. The two were observed a short time later leaving the store and the child was overheard by an employee calling the man 'daddy'.

I notice there has been alot of talk about pedophiles in here, and unlike your case I believe the others may be trying to use it to get information on hacking. how many times have we got responces on "how can I find out if this guy is legit". In this case you find out the end results of an employee hearing the kid call him "daddy". I'm just curious to how you got this information. Also, why didn't you take the correct responce? "Call the local authorities?"

g's oh man, walmart better do something.

Now that kind of **** pisses me off. Nobody deserves that kind of treatment, and if I knew where this guy was, I'd lynch him. Perverts like that don't deserve to have children, they deserve to be locked up, and left alone for the rest of their lives. If they can change, or get help, then thats great, but if they continue doing something that they must know is wrong, then they shouldn't have kids, and it really pisses me off that somebody would do this to their son! I mean, my god, that's just, I dunno, I can't describe it I guess.

*vomits beside keyboard* ... I swear. I'd be on WalMart's heels for a VERY long time if I ever saw that. Your son was doing the right thing,..

...too bad Walmart wasn't.

lol, and walmart refuses to stock cd's without them being edited and such. yea, thats right the newest Eminem CD is aparently more dangerious to the youth than some guy who is sexually abusing them.

Quote:

---

Originally posted here by mrkangaroo
Hey thats messed up. That shouldn't happend but wadda you know its Kentucky

---

That comment was just uncalled for...

Quote:

---

Originally posted by: 8*B@LL
lol, and walmart refuses to stock cd's without them being edited and such. yea, thats right the newest Eminem CD is aparently more dangerious to the youth than some guy who is sexually abusing them.

---

Thats not even the whole part. Here's where it gets odd. I've noticed that when I go into WalMart that their CD selection sucks because I listen to heavy metal, rock, etc. And they only stock edited cd's without curse words or profane pictures.

...

Right next to the CD section in WalMart is an Arms section where you can happly waltz in a select a handgun/rifle of your choice with an accompanyment of ammunition used to shoot. Some whacko with a whacked distorted family could easily buy a weapon there and nobody would second look. *sigh*... WalMart is odd.

Quote:

---

Originally posted here by mrkangaroo
Hey thats messed up. That shouldn't happend but wadda you know its Kentucky

---

That comment was just uncalled for...

I saw this post was recently accessed so I thought their may have been an update to the situation. Allen, anything new since the incident?

I just wanted to bring you all up to date on whats happened since the original incident. After a very sleepless night, I called Social Services and filed a report about what happened. A little later that day I was contacted by a detective for more information. With the help of our local prosecuter I hammered out a deal to protect my sons identity to ease his mind as he was afraid of retribution (understandable) on the part of the molester. He has identified the subject from Wal-Marts security tape and the matter is in the hands of the police now. Here's hoping they find this guy fast and make him regret the day he was born.
Wal-Marts lack of action is considered detestable by all parties involved, and I wouldn't be surprized to see a charge against them result from this based on what the detective has told me. Of course, we all know how deep Wally-Worlds pockets are, so I doubt anything will come of it. I have already emailed the V.P. of Operations for Wal-Mart USA concerning this matter, but I have yet (of course) to see a reply. I myself am keeping quiet from this point forward until they get the pervert in jail, because seeing justice done is the main thing here. After that though, I full well intend on reporting this to the press, seeing as how WM doesn't seem to care about situations such as this. Maybe if their stock starts dropping from all the bad press they will open their eyes and do something.

in the nearest wallmart to my residence there is a small police station for the community outside of the main way a few miles away because about 68% of the crime in my community happens at the wallmart, im unfortunatly unsuprised at wallmarts response, to bad your son didnt have a cop handy like he would at my local wallmart

i hope that child recovers from what effects that perverse action has placed upon him