Jail threat for building pillow fort
The Warehouse has admitted to heavy-handed treatment in an incident involving a 12-year-old west Auckland boy.
Kyan Hatcher, 12, was banned from The Warehouse for two years after being caught on security footage building a pillow fort in an Auckland store.
The Warehouse issued a trespass notice to the west Auckland child on September 17.
It included a warning the person could face up to three months in jail for breaking the trespass order.
The trespass notice has since been removed, effective immediately.
A spokesperson for The Warehouse said that the company asked all customers to abide by health and safety requirements.
‘‘However, it’s clear that this particular incident could have been handled better.’’
Mother Johanna Hatcher said the original punishment was an excessive response to kids being kids.
‘‘I think this is ridiculous as he wasn’t stealing anything, he was just being a kid and being creative.
‘‘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.’’
Kyan was filmed in early September making huts with a friend behind shelves in The Warehouse Westcity, Henderson.
Nothing was said to the children at the time, Hatcher said.
However, she said, when Kyan returned to the store with father Blair Hatcher on September 17, he was pulled aside by a security guard and taken to a small room.
Kyan and his father were shown the security footage from the day in question, she said.
The security guard informed Kyan that they had been waiting for him to return so that they could catch him and issue a trespass notice, Hatcher said.
The boy and his father were also told that if Kyan broke the trespass order he would face up to three months in jail, she said.
Father and son were then escorted out of the store, she said.
Kyan’s mother said her son was quite sweet and innocent.
‘‘He felt so terrible and like a really bad person.’’
Kyan was told at the time that staff believed people were using the pillow fort to sleep in the store overnight so the issue was sent to the company’s head office and investigated, Hatcher said.