New Zealand boy threatend jail for building a pillow fort

A 12-year-old boy has been slapped with a two year ban and threatened with jail time all because he and his friend built a ‘pillow fort’ in a department store last month.

New Zealand boy Kyan Hatcher was issued a trespass notice from the Warehouse departmental store in Westcity, Henderson, Auckland which shocked his mother Johanna Hatcher.

She believed the punishment was too ‘excessive’ for her son who was ‘only being a kid’, Stuff.co.nz reports.  

Kyan had built the pillow fort at an unknown date last month but it was not until he showed up at the departmental store on September 17 with his father Blair was he reprimanded for his playfulness.  

‘I think this is ridiculous as he wasn’t stealing anything, he was just being a kid and being creative,’ she told the website. 

‘If anything he should have got a warning about playing with things in their shop but definitely not a trespass notice and being made to feel like a criminal.’

The security guard at the departmental store had taken Kyan, and his father Blair to a a small room where he was showed CCTV footage of the fort he and his friend built before being slapped with the notice.

The Warehouse departmental store in Auckland has since withdrawn the notice on the boy 

Kyan was informed that he could ‘face up to three months jail’ if he did not adhere to the notice.

Both father and son were later escorted out of the store which made Kyan feel ‘terrible and like he was a bad person’, his mother said. 

However, the Warehouse has since withdrawn the notice. 

‘It’s clear that this particular incident could have been handled better,’ a spokesperson for the departmental store told the website.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Ms Hatcher for comment.