Mother calls police after fall-out with supermarket boss
‘He tried to snatch a box from my autistic son’
A mother called the police and demanded a supermarket manager be sacked after claiming he tried to snatch a cardboard box from her autistic five-yearold son.
Gemma Bird was beginning a weekly shop at Aldi, in Langley Park, last Wednesday, with her two sons.
The 27-year-old allowed her eldest, Eddie Osmani, a pupil at Five Acre Wood Primary School, to play with empty cardboard packaging from the shelves to cater for his sensory needs.
Miss Bird, who lives at Imperial Park, said: “I was walking down the first aisle when I saw a worker who I thought was a shelf stacker. I turned around and he was trying to snatch the box out of my son’s hand.
“He said we were making a mess on the floor. I told him I would pick up the three pieces that were on the floor and warned him my son would have a meltdown if he didn’t have it. I asked him to imagine he was in my shoes just for one day.
“I carried on walking and he tried to snatch the box off my son again.”
Miss Bird, a full-time motherof-two, said she felt the member of staff’s actions made her “feel like a criminal”.
She added: “I explained the situation to another worker and asked which manager was on duty and she pointed at the same man who tried taking the box from my son.
“I told them I was unhappy about him and he said ‘to be honest I’m not happy with you and your son making a mess and I don’t care if he is autistic’.
“I took my children out of the trolley and left the trolley there. I didn’t want to put money into the store.”
Shortly after 5pm, Miss Bird rang the police on 101 and they attended the newly-built store, in Laight Road.
A spokesman for Kent Police confirmed officers had been called to a reported disturbance, adding: “Inquiries are on-going to ascertain if any offences have been committed.”
An Aldi spokesman said: “We were very sorry to hear of Ms Bird’s and her son’s experience and we are investigating the matters she has raised as a matter of urgency.”