I Saved a Young Child's Life Today and the Parents Didn't Seem to Care

[Shagnasty]

@sir viks

Then I read your later post about where this happened. I actually work about 1/4-mile from the BK in question (on Fortune Boulevard). I drove down there at lunch today to see the area in question. The intersection where this BK is located is very heavy with traffic, and because of a unique traffic pattern, the road where the toddler was headed has various business entrances and exits in the specific area where he was going to cross (a gas station, the Wal-Mart plaza, the BK, a hotel). It is a large cluster-fuck of cars and trucks.

That is the place. For those of you who are pathologically skeptical about any story people relay, our good man here took the time to verify that the location is arranged as described. Thanks sir viks

[Sailboat]

For what it’s worth, I experienced much the same lack of concern from (in my case) a dog’s human family upon his safe return.

About a month ago we were heading down I-81 into Roanoke and a little black-and-tan beagle mix ran right the hell out in front of us. My wife was very alert for animals in the road as a result of seeing so much roadkill on the drive, and somehow she avoided hitting th little guy. We stopped right in the middle of the highway and leaped out screaming and waving our arms at oncoming cars. A police officer behind us stopped and put on his flashers and brought traffic under control while several travelers, now on foot, surrounded the dog. He sat down when he saw he was surrounded and waited for us.

Turned out he lived with a family in the motel next to the highway. The mother was still asleep at 2:00 PM, but she woke up and grudgingly accepted the dog. When we said “He was running around in the superhighway!” she defended herself by saying that her youngest children probably let him out when they went to the motel swimming pool that morning.

I was thunderstruck. This woman thinks it’s a defense of her guardianship practices that she was asleep while her youngest children were swimming in water over their heads, unsupervised, and her dog was in the superhighway.

We felt pretty bad letting them have the dog back, after she said that. But the cop was standing right there, beaming, clearly happy to be helping, so I didn’t feel like I could tuck the dog under my arm and make a run for it.

So I very much understand pitting someone over something like this. And I have no preconceptions about the OP’ honesty, or anyone else’s posting veracity, for that matter.

Sailboat

[Roderick_Femm]

@Malacandra

@Otto

I dunno, given the dissolution of the gene pool, I gotta lean toward better safe than sorry.

Well, Nature’s given you a head start on not contributing to the next generation’s problems. May I recommend that you not fight it?

I know this is the Pit and all, and maybe Otto’s remark was unfeeling, but this from you is just nasty.

So bite me, twit.
Roddy

[sir_viks]

@Shagnasty

That is the place. For those of you who are pathologically skeptical about any story people relay, our good man here took the time to verify that the location is arranged as described. Thanks sir viks

No problem, Shag . My curiosity got the best of me, but I can definitely see how this could have been a disaster. Well done, mate.

[Iggins]

Shagnasty, you aren’t alone with this parental reaction. My reply to an earlier, similar thread…

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=8502602#post8502602