It’s not easy having a child with special needs.

Almost everyone needs a break sometimes, or has days when they feel like they can’t take it another minute.

That said, you can’t just make it someone else’s problem.

The details on this one should leave you as mad as the employee who wrote it.

Check it out.

I felt very sorry for this special needs kid and absolutely infuriated by his family’s behavior

When I was 17 I worked at a large big box pet food retail store that also sold aquarium fish, small reptiles and rodents, etc.

This family used to come in all the time shopping for fish for their aquarium, and they had a young adult severely autistic son who was unable to verbally communicate.

They would take their time walking the aisles and viewing all the fish, and their son seemed really calmed by it and found it very enjoyable.

One at a time, like they thought no one would notice.

One day, the family came by, wandered the aisles for a bit, and then suddenly I saw the mom walk out the store.

The autistic adult son was still there, calmly viewing the fish and enjoying himself.

Soon thereafter I saw his older brother leave, and then it was just him.

Of course he started to freak out.

He wasn’t causing any trouble at first and was minding his own business really, until about 20 minutes passed and he realized that has family was gone.

As I said before he was unable to verbally communicate, so his communicating consisted of grunts and groans, along with pointing and other physical movements.

I’m not sure what emotions he was experiencing, but after another HOUR AND A HALF passed, he began to get very upset and frustrated.

The employees felt more sorry for him than anything.

He wanted us to bag some fish for him, we refused because we knew he didn’t have money, and had no way of traveling home in time to get the fish in their aquarium before they died.

After about another 20 minutes of him getting increasingly frustrated, he left the fish area and got a cart, then began filling it with candy bars from the checkout line.

He dumped about every candy bar we had out into his cart (hundreds), and then waiting in line, and then once he got to the front he began putting them on the counter.

The cashier didn’t really know how to handle it because again, she knew he didn’t have any money, and he was loudly grunting and yelling at her and vigorously gesturing in a threatening way.

A manager had to get involved.

The Manager on Duty that night was one of our assistant managers, and she too was not sure of what to do.

The cashier was calmly telling him that he couldn’t buy the candy, which got him more frustrated and he stormed away and began pulling some dog food bags off the shelves.

As I said before he was in his late teens/early twenties, about 6’3″, and clearly very angry and frustrated.

But eventually, things came to a head.

Luckily at this time it was about close, and my manager said we would wait another 20 minutes for his family to come back before calling the police.

After they didn’t show, we called the police, and it took the police about another half hour to arrive. But of course just as the police showed up, his mother and brother did.

She acted very worried and said things like “Oh we didn’t know where he went! We’re so glad he came here! Of course this is the last place we looked. I’m so sorry officer, we were so scared blah blah blah”

WELL, I witnessed the two of them knowingly leave him in the store.

My manager politely told them that he could not be in our store anymore unsupervised because it was a disruption.

They left in a huff, still denying they had left him intentionally.

It really is awful.

While I am sure living with someone that has a disability is extremely difficult and that “breaks” are needed from time to time, but seriously?

I couldn’t believe that someone would abandoned their special needs family member in a store just to get away from them for awhile.

Jesus.

You’re not going to believe this…

They came back a few weeks later, and I saw the mom and him come in, her lead him to the fish area, then head for the door.

I ran after her, grabbed her and looked her straight in the eye and said “You cannot leave him here. That is wrong.”

She stared at my 17-year-old self silently for a moment before stuttering “… I … I was just getting my wallet out of my car…” Then walked back in the store.

She scooped him up and they left together. I didn’t see them there again before I quit a few months later.

The cards life deals you can be hard, but this feels like a major cry for help.

What does Reddit think? Let’s find out!

They definitely all kept their cool.

It’s pretty sad to think about.

Things probably didn’t get better.

That seriously took guts.

It could have been a whole lot worse.

These employees really earned their paychecks that day.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.