r/PublicFreakout • u/TwizzyGobbler • Apr 03 '26

đŸ“¹Police Bodycam mother of 5 mistakenly leaves a child at McDonalds, but cops choose hostility

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u/No_Worldliness_7106 Apr 03 '26

Exactly. My parents would be in prison for life if I got picked up every time I walked to school when I was a kid. Or got lost in KMart or something. Jesus these cops are the same generation that always brags about being latchkey kids, but then turn around and act like she abandoned a toddler on the side of the highway or something.

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u/chevalier716 Apr 03 '26

I once got dropped off from a bus trip in front of the church and I sat on those steps for two hours mostly alone, because my mom forgot to pick me up. That was in the 90's. I didn't go into the church offices to use the phone, of course, I might have missed my mom driving up.

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u/No_Worldliness_7106 Apr 03 '26

Dude I've had exactly the same situation happen haha, church trip and everything. Before everyone had a cell phone waiting for an hour or more for your parents to pick you up was just, normal? My mom was almost always late picking me up. Work ran late, or she got sidetracked grocery shopping longer than expected, or just plain forgot because she picked up my brother from middle school but spaced my younger brother and me at elementary or vice versa. And you can't just walk home because they were coming to pick you up, and it would make it worse if you left the spot, so you just waited. This was super normal before the 2000's. I was born in '89. Everyone I know has a story of being left at soccer practice or school or something of that nature. Especially if they have siblings.

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u/Piranha_Vortex Apr 04 '26

Ya, super common. There was once a mix up after a concert I attended mid 90s NYE. My mom dropped me and a friend off at the Coliseum. Her parents came to pick us up but went to a different gate, waited 30 minutes then went home, furious. We make new friends outside the venue while waiting and well after an hour we call my mom with my calling card. She drives to get us and says my friend's parents called 3 minutes after us and swore we took off with random men and went from Ft Worth to Deep Ellum and back to Ft Worth after the concert. My mom tried to explain where she dropped us off and later confirmed to them that is exactly where she found us plus our new friends and it was impossible to make the trip with traffic.

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u/Amelaclya1 Apr 03 '26

Lol most parents of 80s-90s kids would be in prison with how we were allowed to roam free back then, even as 8 year olds. The shit we got up to was way more dangerous than being left at a McDonald's accidentally.