Kmart shopper ‘PUNCHES a toddler having a tantrum and pushes a trolley at his head’ at the checkout of the Westfield store
- A woman is accused of pushing her trolley at a two-year-old boy at a Kmart
- Mother Rebecca says her son was having a tantrum in the store after a long wait
- As she scanned her purchases, the woman allegedly attacked her son for crying
- CCTV footage allegedly showed the woman had also punched him in the head
- Do you know more? Email hannah.moore@mailonline.com
A woman believed to be in her 60s is accused of punching a toddler in the head at a Kmart store because he was having a tantrum.
Police are investigating an allegation of assault at the store in Westfield Albany in Auckland about midday yesterday.
Mother Rebecca claimed to The New Zealand Herald the woman had rammed a trolley into her two-year-old son’s head and punched him.
Rebecca said she had finished her shopping and was in a lengthy line at the checkout when her children, aged six, four and two, began to get restless.
As the wait continued, her youngest son became inconsolable and disintegrated into a full tantrum.
A woman believed to be in her 60s is accused of punching a two-year-old boy and pushing a trolley towards him after he threw a tantrum at Kmart in Westfield Albany (pictured)
‘He wouldn’t usually behave like this, but I’ve got to admit – it was a really bad tantrum. Probably one of the worst I would have seen,’ she said.
When she finally got to the front of the queue, her son still in meltdown, an older woman appeared to have lost her patience with the young family.
Rebecca claims she turned around to see a trolley being pushed straight towards her son by a woman thought to be in her 60’s.
When the mother-of-three moved to stop the attack, the woman hurled abuse at her, telling Rebecca to ‘take him bloody home’.
After the alleged attack, Rebecca approached Kmart staff to see what could be done, and CCTV footage allegedly shows the woman appear to intentionally steer her trolley towards the young boy.
The woman has not been identified, but police are investigating the allegations
A store worker said they would review the footage further, file a complaint and see if they could find the woman, and Rebecca left the store.
Later that day, the man called Rebecca with more terrible news.
‘He said to me, “I’m sorry to do this to you… but I feel it’s the right thing to do”,’ she said.
‘We’ve reviewed the video footage in detail and we can see that she has actually punched your son in the head with quite some force, when your back was turned.’
More to come.