I am glad you got the child back, but am a little alarmed at the number of parents, including the original poster, who are mad at Tom Dragon. When the hell did a kids’ funland in an undeveloped country with a not-so-spotless record of child abductions somehow become a substitute for proper care and babysitting?
I don’t have children, but would never leave a four-year-old unattended in a public area like that, regardless if it was a designated kids land or not. Sorry, but some of that anger you’ve directed at that business and the cops needs to be directed at yourself–think before you leave a four-year-old alone.
My hunch is that he just walked out himself. He probably is too ashamed to tell you because he doesn’t want to get into trouble. I walked my younger sister out of a hotel room once in Hong Kong when I was four, right under my parents’ noses, and it sent my father on a frantic search for us. He caught us right when we were stepping into the elevator. Don’t underestimate the power of a toddler.
This also bothered me. Do four-year-olds have no mental retention powers? Asked how he got where he was found he said he didn’t remember? That sound bogus to me. He was either alone or he wasn’t. He can’t recall that simple yes-no situation just minutes after it occured?
I don’t have kids so am I wrong here?
[quote] Secondly… while Tom Dragon may have had some responsibility for the safety of your child, you, as his parent, had primary responsibility for his safety. I didn’t want to lecture, but your comment above irked me… so, I would never leave my 4 year old son alone for even 3 miutes like you did. What if someone had tried to abduct your child… 3 minutes is plenty of time for that. Accidents also can happen in less than 3 minutes.
Seems you want to blame everyone but yourself.[/quote]
I believe the original poster is already beating themselves up about not watching their child. I read nothing that indicated that they’d abdicated their responsiblity or blame.
Eric Lier wrote:
What I believe is at the heart of the matter is the lack of followup by the police and by the management of Tom Dragon. And I’m afraid that the longer they wait, the more likely it is that any videotape will be “lost”. The only possibility for something positive arising from this situation is to find out if any wrong-doing did happen. The fact remains that either
The staff let a child leave unattended, or
Somebody tried to kidnap the child.
Why they’re not curious to find out about this leaves me wondering if there’s some guanxi being abused.
And Wolf: yes, it’s definitely possible for a four-year-old to forget about that kind of event, especially if they were drowsy or sleeping at the time.
In the US, the infamous Chuck E Cheese has a sytem where they stamp the adult guardian and child with the same number, which they read with a blacklight, just to keep random people from walking off with kids–it’s really easy to lose sight of them for several minutes at a time in the maze of arcade games, mini rides, and climbing areas. Does Tom Dragon have a similar system?
And Wolf: yes, it’s definitely possible for a four-year-old to forget about that kind of event, especially if they were drowsy or sleeping at the time.[/quote]
So someone carried him out while he was sleeping? Can anyone just walk in and take a child out at these places? All the better reason not to leave them there unattended in the first place.
I don’t know if the OP is talking about the Tom Dragon in Xizhi or somewhere else. If it’s the one in Xizhi (i guess the others are similar), that place is designed to be able to leave the kids there unattended. It should be like leaving a kid at kindergarten. Even if you were there, as someone else pointed out, you wouldn’t have your kid in sight all the time, as it’s a maze of tunnels and things. I htink it’s quite right to say that Tom Dragon should take responsibilty.
Secondly, I wouldn’t want to try and sue them. The boss of Tom Dragon is very well connected. I used to work at the kindergarten there, which was able to set up in a commercial-only area and have big ‘zhao sheng’ activities and apparently had nothing whatsoever to worry about fromt he police. I heard that the manager is very close friends with soemone very high up (I used to know who it was, but forgot - it was someone like Lee Deng Hui or someone similarly well-placed).
I’m with Flicka and Tigerman. Glad to hear that you got your kid back, but the fault lies with you, not Tom Dragon. A four year-old is too young to be left alone. He probably wandered off by himself and the employees weren’t paying any attention to him. Is that so surprising? What to do now? Nothing, except to keep a closer eye on him in the future.
Those places are for leaving kids unattended, while the parents go off and do their shopping - I have used them several times - and I would rough up any employee who let my child leave - at the place I have used the most, they want to see ID before you get to take your kid away.
They live nad die by their reputation - a kid there should be kept there by the staff, unless removed by parent or guardian.
The toddler-age cousin of one of my friends was kidnapped from his front yard, and was found murdered a few blocks away less than an hour later.
Then there are the ones where they rape the kid, and the ones where they rape and then kill the kid, and the ones where nobody knows what happens because the kid/body is never found. Take your pick.
[quote=“Bu Lai En”]I’d better tell that to the parents of all the kindy kids I teach!
The kid wasn’t left alone. He was left in a supervised area, designed so that you can leave kids there safely.[/quote]
Bu,
I understand what you’re saying… but…
The area apparently was not supervised as well as I would want it to be, for my 4 year old child. I don’t know this Tom Dragon place… but I would want to know exactly what the rules and safety measures are regarding unattended children and what type of responsibility the proprietor has agreed to assume…
We used to take our kid to a place that sounds similar to Tom Dragon back in the States… You can bet that US law placed more responsibility on the proprietors there, and that the proprietors attempted to deny as much liability as possible… but we never left our child unattended there. There were bigger kids running around and there were climbing and jumping structures that could be dangerous for children, depending upon their ages…
Kindergartens and or daycares are normally regulated by the government and everyone is fairly clear as to who is responsible for what… I doubt that the same can be said of this Tom Dragon joint.
But I’d be very interested in knowing what Taiwan law says about these places.
In South Africa certain population groups are known to rape babies, including infants, with surprising frequency. I can’t quite figure out how they manage it (nggggg! ngggghhhh!), but one theory floating around out there is that having sex with a virgin can cure AIDS.
Jeff, Jeff, Jeff…Taiwan is a “knowledge-based society” now. We have innovalue and science-based industrial parks. OF COURSE we have this sort of high-tech, space age, cutting edge technique.
i am so glad your son was found safely. thank you also for the reminder that we always need to look after our kids.
[quote=“Eric Lier”]
I called 911 and asked to speak to the Foreign affairs police. The operator on the phone did not understand English nor my poor Chinese and hung up on me. [/quote]
this is the part that concerned me. did you actually dial 911 or 119? if it was 119, (that’s the emergency number in taiwan, right?) than the fact that they hung up on you is outrageous. i don’t know if i could have even spoken coherently in my native language if my child was missing.
If you you had dialed 911, I don’t think much would have happened. 119 is for Ambulance and Fire, 110 is for Police. But they still should have some concern for human life. The people at Tom’s Dragon would know the right number, but they didn’t seem to care that child could have been abducted. Notice how the only person to show some concern was another foreigner ? It’s some messed up country that will march to change a name, but won’t lift a finger to save someone’s life. And they say other countries don’t respect Taiwan ?
Oh for christsake quit picking on the police. According to Eric’s own word’s here’s what happened:
6:30 he leaves his son for about 2 or 3 minutes
(6:32-6:33 he returns and finds son missing)
he says he then looked for his son with his wife for about 20 minutes
(6:52-6:53 he finishes looking)
he says he then looked with staff for a while before calling police
7:00 he says his son was found
8:00 he says the police show up and are unresponsive
By Eric’s own words he called the police at most 8 minutes before his son appeared. The police then showed up an hour later, the son is apparently sitting there, and he’s angry that they aren’t doing anything. What should they do, give him a lolipop?
When four people were drowning in Pachang Creek it took several hours of evading responsibility for the rescue crew to show up before the people drowned. If the police had been more responsive in this case do you think the boy would have appeared sooner than the 8 minutes that it took for him to appear after the call to the police? I doubt it.
