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August 3, 2014 at 4:36 am #612213
feringMemberJust have to vent! As we all sat mesmerized by the sunset tonight, a guy in a group of people next to us dragged his 3-year-old into the water and then proceeded to dunk him in the cold water of Puget Sound multiple times. At first, we were thinking this some sort of weird game.
Then it became unreal. The group of people–we think it was his family–said nothing. The guy took the kid’s pants off and made him stay in the water. He was pointing and yelling at him, and although he wasn’t speaking English, you could tell that he was mad as hell at that little boy. My partner got up and went to call the cops. This little boy was standing waist-high in the 50 degree water just shaking. The guy wouldn’t let him out for 10 minutes, and as the kid started walking to the shore, the guy went into the water and tried to get him to go back out.
That’s when I lost my mind. I might have called him a bad word and yelled at all of them– “Don’t you know that baby can get hypothermia? I’m going to call the cops.” The guy said, “Go ahead.”
And my partner was on the phone with the cops. While we waited a full 30 minutes for them to respond (much like when the crazy crackhead tried to bust through our front door), we got his license plate. Ultimately they sent a very nice female police officer (a mother) who said she will see if they live nearby and maybe she could check in.
But we know what will happen–this “parent” will ride into the sunset, free to do whatever the hell he wants to his kid. So frustrating. That kid was just a baby, and maybe you had to be there, but none of us could believe what we were seeing.
August 3, 2014 at 6:47 am #811705
CaitParticipantThat is absolutely horrifying – the fact that he said that you could go ahead and call the cops lets me know that he felt justified in whatever he was doing and that’s pretty scary. Even if you are trying to get your kid used to the water (?) or something weird like that, when they are shivering and miserable, that’s generally a hint that you’ve pushed their limits. I hope they are able to follow up on this and ask some questions.
August 3, 2014 at 12:03 pm #811706
littlebrowndogParticipantSince you have the license plate number you could call Children’s Protective Services at 1-800-ENDHARM. That is a reporting line 24/7. They may investigate, and it is possible there may be other reports of previous concerns. And if it is a first report this will put the father on their radar.
August 3, 2014 at 1:49 pm #811707
anonymeParticipantThank you for taking action, and please do call CPS. IMO, this is child abuse at best, but crosses the line into something more sinister.
August 3, 2014 at 4:04 pm #811708
feringMemberThanks, everyone. We can definitely call CPS on Monday. The police officer said there won’t be any paperwork on their end because all we have is a license plate number, there is no paperwork to be filed.
My guess is that the kid wet his pants or did something else and it got the dad mad. That was punishment we were witnessing. Funny thing, if that guy had been doing that to his dog, more people would have been up in arms. Can you imagine making a yellow lab stay in the frigid water at night?
Just makes me so damn mad!
August 3, 2014 at 4:18 pm #811709
pattileaParticipantfering, Please don’t wait until Monday to call CPS. I am a child advocate and mandated reporter. OMG I am with you, I would have gone crazy on that person. The sad part is, this must be normal if the family didn’t react, or they may be afraid of him also. Some people shouldn’t be gifted with children!
August 3, 2014 at 10:13 pm #811710
VanessaParticipantand that poor baby will probably be traumatized by that incident for the rest of his life. As far as the parents, I cannot print what I have to say about them.
August 4, 2014 at 4:56 pm #811711
feringMemberUpdate! Due to you encouraging us to contact CPS, we did. We got an extraordinary guy who meticulously recorded our recollection of the experience. Since we got the guy’s license plate, he is going to do everything he can to track the guy down and do a safety check on the child.
We are glad that we spoke up and for all of your support here. We’ll let you know if we hear anything else!
August 4, 2014 at 5:39 pm #811712
sam-cParticipantfering- thanks for the update, and thanks for stepping in to say something to the dad.
August 4, 2014 at 6:02 pm #811713
LindseyParticipantHow heartbreaking! Thank you for saying something and doing something. If that’s the punishment the poor kid gets in PUBLIC for a normal kid thing (accidents happen) then I can’t imagine what kind of punishment happens at home. Good on you for contacting CPS.
August 4, 2014 at 8:47 pm #811714
kurly212Participantfering, it was really brave of you to confront the dad. I’m glad you called CPS. Thanks to littlebrowndog for suggesting it. I hope they’ll fully investigate the situation.
August 4, 2014 at 8:53 pm #811715
littlebrowndogParticipantThank you for calling CPS. It sometimes takes guts to do that but it is so important that people do it on behalf of vulnerable children and adults. 800-ENDHARM is a number we should all program into our phones (along with the National Suicide Prevention Hotline, which is 800-273-8255).
August 4, 2014 at 9:00 pm #811716
feringMemberThank you, littlebrowndog, for pushing us to do so. We’ve never called CPS before (never had a reason to), but we thought it would end much like the police–a pat on the head and then they’d hang up.
It was far from that. He screened us very carefully to make sure this wasn’t some custody issue or family dispute where we were trying to cause problems for someone or increase the drama level.
He reassured us multiple times that we did the right thing and then told us why.
It’s really great to know people like this fellow are working on behalf of kids.
August 4, 2014 at 10:53 pm #811717
wakefloodParticipantGood to know you had a quality interaction. CPS is like many other entities in that you really only hear the horror stories in the media.
I sure as hell wouldn’t want to do their jobs (especially at their pay) and cut them serious slack before passing judgement when I see a story.
Hope this story has a happier ending (for the child).
August 5, 2014 at 3:35 am #811718
FionaEnzoParticipantFering, so glad you made a report. As others have said, we have no idea what other abuse this poor child may also have endured behind closed doors. Truly traumatizing — makes me mad.
Sadly no training or licensing required to be a parent.
CPS does great work with very little resources/staff yet lots of criticism.
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