Something very similar happened to me in Best Products in Norfolk, VA. A little girl came up to me and told me she was lost. I took her by the hand and walked only a few feet to the counter and told the girl there, that the little girl was lost. They found her Mother fairly soon.
I will say that about half way to the counter, it struck me that I was making a mistake. I should have asked another shopper to watch her while I went to the counter. Fortunately nothing bad happened to me, but it sure could have.
“I openly admit to having continued PAST an injured, crying little girl, OUT OF MY OWN FEAR.”
A friend of mine did the same thing. Leave the kid there and alert store management.
It’s sad to be obliged to realize that one might be perceived as an evildoer simply by ones looks or by being naturally caring.
I think the police went too far, they could have handled it at the scene. Detectives involved? Exactly how under worked are the police in Orlando? Or should I wonder how overstaffed?
Something similar happened to me in Germany a few years back. It helps to know that I am a man from the Dallas area.
I was standing in a line to board a tour boat at Konigsee, a beautiful lake in Bavaria. The dock was six feet or so wide.
Out of the corner of my eye I see a toddler running at full speed down the dock, toward shore. He is weaving very close to the cold, clear water. Nobody seems to have noticed him except me.
Without thinking I reached down with one arm and scooped him up. It took about two seconds for the whole thing to happen.
So now I have a small boy sitting on my hip, and it begins to dawn on me. I am in a foreign country, I don’t speak the language, and now I have just snatched someone’s kid. I am thinking to myself “Hey, you’re going to jail.”
The kid looked at me for a couple of seconds wide-eyed, then he smiled and said “Howdy!” He speaks Texan!
Mom showed up right then, apologizing profusely for letting her son get away from her. Turned out his parents were from Ft. Worth, Dad was a civilian contractor at Ramstein. Talk about relief, man.
I had the exact same thing happen to me even down to realizing half way to the counter that I had made a mistake. Like your experience, mine turned out fine. Part of the reason, I took her hand so readily was I had a daughter the same age.