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My 14 month old child's foot got stuck in the grocery cart at walmart. It took 3 manager people, three regular workers and a bolt cutter to get her out.
She's okay now. She's going to have a pretty big bruise around her right ankle and some soreness. We were grocery shopping and everything was fine for about 45 minutes, and then my husband says, "Oh my god dude!" and I look ...down and see that SOMEHOW she's stuck her foot in between the little bars beside the leg hole. (kind of like -> |__||, her foot was in the small part.) So we try to pop the foot out of the hole, but it's obviously hurting her each time we try. Then we're getting frustrated so I suggest we go to a department and ask them to call a manager. We end up in jewelery and the old lady is like "Oh my goodness!" And calls for a manager, and an assistant manager lady and a CSM (?) lady comes over and we try to use some lotion. All that managed to do was get them and my daughter slippery. My toddler is pretty calm this entire time except when we're trying to slip her foot out, it was pretty amazing. Then they called for ANOTHER manager, and this tall guy manager and another dept. manager come over and the tall one says, "Oh, I know! We'll use the bolt cutters!" So he calls yet another guy to come bring the bolt cutters over and we're attracting a small crowd at this point. Finally the last guy comes over with the bolt cutters (and a shopping cart guy for some reason) and he has an expression on his face like he's terrified. Well, they end up cutting one of the bars off, but had some difficulty doing that. The bar wasn't wanting to come off so they had to twist and shake it some which meant that it was tightening up on her poor little ankle and that's when she really began bawling, but by that time it was all over and she settled quickly.
Apparently this had happened before which is how the manager knew to use the cutters. They never asked me to fill out a complaint (which I wish I had now!) and I never thought to at the moment because I was obviously upset over my child being hurt. She could have been hurt worse, a broken or sprained ankle, what if her circulation had been cut off? Her poor foot was turning an off-shade of her natural skin-tone. I'd have photos of the bruises, but I haven't been able to take a picture yet since it was bedtime by the time we came home.
Well, it's not specifically Walmart, I'm glad they helped. It's more the type of carts they're using.
Also, I was watching my child, and she was in the seat correctly AND wearing the belt. It isn't my fault. And the cooking oil wouldn't have worked if the lotion didn't.
What had happened was that we were in the frozen foods, my husband and I were looking at something for maybe a minute, then we looked down and saw her foot was stuck. She had forced her foot through somehow. I mean kids do things like that, and apparently it's happened before too.
I'm pretty sure that we were paying attention to her, but whatever.
She had pulled her leg out of the leg hole and was trying to put it back I guess.
The same thing happened to my daughter tonight. I see this post is from 2011! We are now in 2020 and Walmart still hasn’t done anything about this. Her foot was stuck in the small bar and we used lotion we could not get it out then someone got a tool and pulled the bar back and we got her foot at. Mind you my child is chunky her feet are fat I’m not sure how she got it stuck. I’m glad she is okay. I am very thankful for the Walmart workers for helping us... although I think Walmart needs to fix their carts! Something worse could have happened.
This just happened to my son tonight. hes 3 and got his foot lodged. my husband and I rushed and all they managed to get was 3 stupid managers and a crowd. no one thought bolt cutters til my husband said something. he got pliers. until some strong other customer got the pliers and broke him free... they need to get safer carts. plastic and smaller holed design
The same thing happened to my son today at stop and shop and the mgr said"oh dont beat ur self up, its not the first time" really... I think carts should be made solid in the front, plastic is probably cheaper anyway and doesnt rust, and I watch my son like a hawk, that can happen in seconds and theres nothing u can do. all these jerks giving you a hard time will get it when something unfortunate happens and their foot goes in their m0uth.
I agree that parents should be watching their children, however, kids can get into mischief very quickly and it only takes a second to look away to check a price or something and something has happened. The carts should be looked at and someone should come up with a way to make them safer. The only other thing I found odd was that she didn't take a picture right away because it was bedtime? Does the child need to be awake to take a picture of her ankle? Get her ready for bed, take the picture...not time consuming or difficult and seriously, the few extra minutes past bedtime is hardly going to damage the child anyway.
Not too much depth in the old WalMart gene pool, eh?
Idiot children of idiots are all I ever see running around WallyWorld. I have had the great displeasure of stepping into WalMuck 5 times in my life, and always feel that I need to take a shower after I leave.
Maybe you need to rein your kids in, put them in the seat provided and strap them in, or ask the "babydaddy" to watch the brat, if you have a clue as to who he might be. ...and do us all a favor, stop by the pharmacy and grab some condoms and spermicide.
Does anyone have information on a child being injured in a shopping cart because the anti-theft device that locks a wheel on a shopping cart caused the cart to tip over.? The child and parents alway are blamed when a cart tips over and the child is injured. But when an anti-theft device designed to lock wheels on a cart causes tips over the device is rarley sighted as the cause because there is no investigation. Everyone blames the parent and child even the parents. No one thinks or knows the cause may be the locked wheel. Over 28, 000 children are injured in shopping carts each year and about 1, 400 children a year end up with brain and spinal cord injures that last a life time. You can test what happens when a locking wheel type anti-theft device locks a wheel. Go to a store that has a sign in the parking lot that says the carts are equipped with either a Cattronics or Gatekeeper anti-theft system. Try and push the cart off of the property if the system is working it will lock one of the wheels on the cart by design. Once the wheel is locked take notice of which wheel is locked (most offten it will be one of the front wheels) and do this test: 1. Move to the oppsite side of the cart across from the locked wheel. 2. Put you hand at the top of the basket palm open and push towards the locked wheel. The cart will tip over faster that you can blink an eye. If there were a baby in the baby seat the first thing that hits the ground is the baby's head! The same thing can happen when a tire blows out on a SUV or any high center of gravity vehicle. The wheel on a shopping cart with a locking wheel device can false trigger anywhere ih the store or paking lot. When talking to the insurance company for the grocery retailer, some cart maufactures and retailers about this their reponds is children being injured in shopping carts is just the cost of doing business. When asked why they would put locking wheel devices on a shopping cart they say they are cheap and meet the city code requirement to prevent the theft. We need your help on this no one seems to care!
When my son was about twelve, I asked him to help me pull down a jacket off the rack of clothes in our Wal-Mart. The main pole in the middle broke or came apart, and almost whacked him on the head! It wasn't that the entire rack fell over onto him, the main pole in the middle had come loose. And it wasn't some little, lightweight aluminum pole, either. A big, heavy pole. It didn't hit him, thankfully. I still would have complained, but half the people in the store don't speak English. The other half don't give a darn and won't bother to help you. A few months ago, my husband and I were looking at the sporting goods department. He almost cut his hand on a huge nail sticking out of a board next to camping supplies. That store is just one big dangerous place to shop. I've heard of many people getting hurt. We hardly ever anymore go there. It's nicer and easier to shop at Target. And the employees actually speak English! And aren't so rude!
walmart should be able to accommodate infants as well as any other customer. Just like how they provide wheelchairs to disabled customers. The shopping carts should not pose a risk for a child especially when it is used as directed. The openings in the front should be closed to prevent a foot or a hand from slipping in there. a little duct tape could take care of that but walmart is too cheap to correct any major problems. to have this addressed at a national level, someone has to report it to the right authorities first. try the better business bureau or consumer product safety commission. the CSPC is responsible for recalling any product that can be a hazard especially to infants.
Kids do crap like that all the time... It happens watch your kids and stuff like that won't happen there were two of you there and I'm sure it didn't just happen all of a sudden you can't Blame anyone for this that's stupid it's like the people who blamed mcdonalds for making them fat it was their fault they weren't watching what they put in their mouthed and when something went wrong they blamed someone else
Wal-Mart management should have called emergency services immediately after determining that the infant's foot could not be easily removed. By not calling for emergency assistance, they left open the possibility that one of their employees untrained in human extraction could have injured the baby. The managers overseeing this incident require training (or re-training) in how to handle situations such as this. If the head store manager was overseeing the use of lotion and bolt cutters by employees to free a baby, this is inexcusable.
Just curious cause I'm trying to picture this in my head. How exactly was her foot stuck?
Most toddlers just over a year of age like your daughter still have tiny little legs that don't dangle much out of the cart when properly seated in them. Had she somehow pulled her legs back in and gotten it stuck in the bars when trying to put it back out and put it in the wrong spot? Or had she somehow kicked her foot back so that it was in the bars below the seat?
Everyone appeared to be very civil to me...
It sounds like the Wal-Mart people were very helpful, at least, so that's a good thing. You should try to find out who the carts are manufactured by and take it up with them. I think all shopping carts are made pretty much the same, so there's probably not a lot Wal-Mart can do other than what they did. But maybe getting in touch with the manufacturer would get someone thinking about designing the carts differently or offering a fix of some sort to prevent these types of accidents.
I never claimed that Walmart was responsible. I said that accidents happen -- which is true, if I'm not mistaken. I didn't place any blame on either party since you know, I wasn't actually there. I'm not sure how I can point fingers if I never saw the event. That would be juvenile of me, wouldn't it? All I can do is take the perspective of the mother at face value and be thankful that the child is okay.
If this woman was such a negligent mother, I don't think she'd take the time out of her day to share her story. In fact, I'm glad she shared her story because I'm a mother also. Mothers should know how quickly and easily accidents can happen with children. Instead, most of you are getting tough on your keyboards and as I'm reading these comments, I'm debating if some of you are still in middle school. Furthermore, if you don't believe Walmart is responsible, that's fine. You're entitled to your opinion just like everyone else, but don't give this woman the third degree just because being a web-gangster is as exciting as your day gets.
Stupid things like cooking oil? That's a very intelligent safe way for the child and the cart.
If you read the post she was buckled in.
If the childs foot was extremly small then how did it get stuck? And even if it was the mothers fault i just disagree with all of the negativety towards the mother and saying stupid things like cooking oil would have worked better. Who the hell thinks cooking oil.
If your daughter had stood up while you weren't watching her, fallen out of the cart, busted her head wide open like a melon, and died on the spot; would that have been Wal-Mart's fault too?
I guess to prevent the problem you described from happening in the future, Wal-Mart should stop providing carts to people like you. Instead you can carry the groceries and other items you need in the hand/arm you aren't using to carry your daughter with.
I realize and agree with what you're saying, but we don't know if the woman above was distracted or if her child's foot was extremely small or if the child forced it into the cart.
It's probably a combination of the child not being watched and the cart not being child-proof.
Agreed. And I'm sure she didn't walk away for five minutes and come back. She was probably standing right there and looked over to see the childs foot stuck in the cart. No one is asking the store to baby sit just have proper accomodations for children.
Yes go buy cooking oil to fix there screw up. Wow. And im sure if you have kids then you know that you cant stare at them as you get food off the shelf. Again not the mothers fault the carts should be safe for children.
It shouldnt be easy for a child to stick there foot through the bars to begin with. And who carries cooking oil around with them? Wow its not a question of wether or not the child was being watched but more of the shopping carts not being safe.
Yes Brenda, yes it is.
Every shopping cart I have ever seen allows for some type of injury if you're not watching your child.