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- Mother arrived at Walmart in Jackson, Mississippi, with her son only in a diaper
- Felicia, a supermarket worker, confronted her with other shoppers and called the police.
- Felicia said she was fired three days later during her next shift for posting a video.
- Do you know more? Email nic.white@mailonline.com
Shocked shoppers confronted a mother who took her toddler to Walmart wearing nothing but a diaper in freezing weather.
The boy was shaking as he sat in the shopping cart at the Jackson, Mississippi, store on Wednesday during last week’s winter storm.
Temperatures dropped to 37°F that day, but the boy was not given appropriate clothing for shopping.
Felicia Nicole, a Walmart worker who confronted the mother along with other shoppers, said she was fired after posting a video of the child online.
The young woman said it was 20°F or colder when the mother and child entered, and that the child was only wearing a diaper, without a shirt, socks or shoes.
She said that before her video began, another shopper put a black jacket on the boy after his mother refused to give him something to wear.
At one point, the boy visibly shuddered and his teeth chattered.
‘What’s wrong with you?’ An older man repeatedly asked her mother as she grabbed the shelves of groceries and tossed them into the cart next to her son.
He turned around and told the man to lower his voice, then he pushed his cart and headed toward Felicia’s chamber.
Felicia and other shoppers said someone should call the police, but the mother seemed to say that the police had already been called to her twice before.
“As long as you have hot water, fire extinguisher…” he said, before pausing dramatically.
‘When you walk into the store fully dressed and your baby isn’t…’ Felicia responded.
‘How many children do you have?’ her mother responded, and Felicia said she had a son as the woman turned and pushed her cart down the frozen food aisle.
A second video showed a kind older shopper, a woman on a scooter, dressing the boy in a long-sleeved shirt and pants she bought for him.
While he was dressing the boy, his mother stood next to the stroller fiddling with her phone.
Felicia later posted an update to her TikTok followers confirming that they called the police to notify the mother.
‘Yes, we called the police. I mean, why wouldn’t we? Why wouldn’t we? she said, holding back tears.
‘When you see a child who is being abandoned, don’t put clothes on him, just a diaper, no shoes, no socks, no T-shirt, nothing. So why don’t we call the police?
Felicia said the woman asked her if she had a son and she did, but he died.
Behind her, on the wall, was a photograph of a little boy lying in a hospital bed with a tube stuck down his throat.
“If my son were alive, there’s no way he’d be out there with no clothes on, just a diaper,” she said.
In response to a comment on her video, she wrote: ‘Some people don’t need kids! They need to tie his tubes and burn them.’
Felicia later said that hours after posting the original videos, her manager called her to demand that she remove them, which she did.
She was not on the work list last Thursday and Friday, and after reporting to work on Saturday, she was suddenly fired two hours before her shift ended.
‘I took it upon myself to record it for the child’s sake. “No, I wasn’t thinking about the consequences at that time. At that time my main focus was on that poor innocent child and getting him help,” he said.
“Now I’m unemployed because I was just trying to help and save that baby’s life.”
A fundraiser to pay Felicia’s bills while she looks for a new job has raised almost $4,000.
Former Planned Parenthood director Dr. Abby Johnson was one of many viewers horrified by the videos after they were reposted on Twitter.
‘It would be impossible for me not to grab that baby and hold it next to my body until it warmed up and stopped shaking. “If this woman treats him like this in public, imagine what happens to him in private,” she wrote.
‘I hope your children are removed and placed in a safe and loving home. Many families would be willing to provide such a home for him, including ours.’
The Jackson Police Department did not return calls to confirm whether any action was taken against the child’s mother.