Elder Abuse

[LillFilly]

Yesterday I was on-duty and got a call that there was a car parked in the fire lane outside one of our stores with an elderly man in the back seat. I got there and was told by another customer that the car was there when they got here 1/2 hour ago, and was STILL HERE. Oh, did I mention that it was 100 FRIGGAN DEGREES OUT!?!? The windows were down, but still, in the metal body of a car it would have been even hotter. I asked the man if he was all right. He looked scared and not all there and said he was. So we had the store page for the owners of the car and an employee went to get him some water. I swore that if nobody came in 1-minute I was calling the police. Then these 2-middle-aged ladies just sauntered out of the store with their shopping muttering "Yeah yeah, we're coming." The store manager who was there gave them the dirtiest look and told them it was too hot to do that to a person. I told them it was unacceptable, what if something had happened to him in this heat, and that we had been getting him some water. The women just put their noses in the air, muttered "Whatever." and put their bags in the car. I also told them that it had been another customer that had reported them and that they were lucky the customers only called us and not the police. THAT got their attention and their eyes were shooting daggers at me as they drove-off.

All of us agreed that these women were disgusting. They acted like bringing that man into the store was such a huge deal, never mind that we would have provided them with a wheelchair.

[Amina516]

I hope there was possibly some license plate writing down and a call to the Office of Aging on your off time??

How sad. Theres a special place in hell for people that harm the helpless, old and young. Poor guy.

[Sapphire Silk]

Very sad. Why couldn't they have left him at home in an air conditioned house? or at least with a house fan??

[XCashier]

This sort of thing happens all too often. It's really bad in hot areas like Phoenix. Every year, there's news stories about infants, elderly folks and animals left in hot cars and dying from the heat. EVERY YEAR!!! The newscasters beg the public to please not do this, and it still happens.

Check this out: How Hot Do Cars Get? Good information to know.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

They can't feel the heat, either, so it's extra dangerous. And if the guy was suffering dementia, like my grandmother, they don't register their discomfort with being hot, so they dont' know how to take steps to avoid the heat like opening a window, getting out of the car, taking off the sweater, etc.

My grandmother was uncomfortable once and kept turning up the heat. In August. She knew she needed to tweak the thermostat. She did it probably a hundred times over the course of a weekend. I ended up putting a lock box over the thermostat.

How sad these assholes were his "caregivers." This is no different than leaving a baby in the car.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Stories like this are why I keep the non-emergency police number for the county on my cell phone contacts list. At the wholesale club, we kept this number posted by the front door so that people could report animals trapped in hot cars. I'm sure it works just as well for people trapped in hot cars, too.

[telecom_goddess]

I really don't understand how people can leave anyone in a hot car alone, person or pet. Where the hell is their common sense? I think they should be left in a hot car for a couple minutes just to see how it feels...but not long enough to do damage.

ugh.

[Shalom]

ish suggestion:

Bring the guy inside to an office where it's air conditioned. Don't page anyone, just keep an eye on the car.

Then when the two middle-aged bitches wander out of the store and find the car empty, play dumb. "Huh? You looking for the guy that was in the car? Wasn't he with you? He got out and went into the mall right behind you, I thought y'all were together."

Or depending on how vindictive you're feeling, "Oh, did you know that guy? He was passed out in the car and we had no idea who he was. The EMS guys said they thought he had heat stroke. They took him away in an ambulance about 10 minutes ago, but I don't know which hospital they were headed for..."

Then (in either case) look to see whether and how much they panic. If they freak out, you can just show them where he actually is, and hopefully they'll be smart enough not to do that again. If they seem less concerned, maybe a stern lecture would be in order on why leaving him where they did was a bad idea, before leading them to him. If they don't look at all guilty (as it would seem likely from their reaction above), then he's better off without them and you can contact whoever is responsible for the vulnerable elderly, if any such agency exists in your area.

[HappyFun Ball]

If they didn't want to have to push him around the store or follow him around because he is slow.. They could've at least brought him in and sat him down in the cool store and collected him after they bought their stuff.

[Kitten in the box]

I hate that. We had one time a similar expeience except the windows were up. someone called us on it and we tried to jimmy the door open. Needless to say the owner of the car came out and decided to repay our kindness by reporting us to corporate. Fucking call corporate. and while your at it? tell them about that senior you left in the car whle you're at it!

[dbuzman]

You said the car was in the fire lane. You should have called the police to have the car ticketed for blocking the fire lane.

[tropicsgoddess]

That's sad the poor old man has those selfish bitches as his caregivers!

[LillFilly]

Unfortunately, because the lane in front of this store isn't painted and has no signs, it technically ISN'T a fire lane and we can't ticket or tow people, as the store's influence extends out into this particular lot. I wanted to call the police, but had only the vehicle to go on; I couldn't know if it was the elderly man's car, one of the women, a friends, rental, etc. So very likely the police would never find them. Not to mention, by the time the police got there the women would have been gone anyway. I really, really wanted to do something like get their information from the store if they'd used a store charge card, but that and all the other options were far beyond the scope of what I'm allowed to do at my job. If the customers had called the police and convinced the women to stay, that would have worked just fine. But yeah, heaven forbid we inconvenience a paying customer, right?

[dbuzman]

I see. You said fire lane and I just thought actual marked fire lane.

[chainedbarista]

i'm seconding shalom's idea with an addon: since these c*@#!$ were parked in a fire lane, you have every right to have them towed without notice.