- Mother came into Walmart in Jackson, Mississippi, with her son in only a diaper
- Supermarket worker Felicia confronted her with other shoppers and called cops
- Felicia said she was fired three days later during her next shift for posting video
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Shocked shoppers confronted a mother who brought her toddler son to Walmart wearing nothing but a diaper in freezing weather.
The little boy was shivering as he sat in the shopping trolley in the store in Jackson, Mississippi, on Wednesday during last week’s winter storm.
Temperatures plunged to 37F that day, yet the child wasn’t given proper clothes for the shopping trip.
Felicia Nicole, a Walmart worker who confronted the mother along with other shoppers, said she was sacked after posting video of the boy online.
The young woman said it was 20F or colder when the mother and child came in, and the boy was only wearing a diaper with no shirt, socks, or shoes.
She said before her video began, another shopper draped a black jacket over the boy after his mother refused to get him something to wear.
At one point the toddler visibly shivered with his teeth chattering.
‘What’s wrong with you?’ an older man asked the mother repeatedly as she grabbed shopping for shelves and tossing them in the trolley next to her son.
She turned around and told the man to lower his voice, then pushed her trolley away and moved toward Felicia’s camera.
Felicia and other shoppers said someone should call the cops, but the mother appeared to say police had already been called on her twice before.
‘As long as you got hot water, fire extinguisher…’ she said, before dramatically pausing.
‘When you come in the store fully dressed and your baby’s not…’ Felicia replied.
‘How many kids you got?’ the mother shot back, and Felicia said she had one child as the woman turned and pushed her trolley down the frozen food aisle.
A second video showed a kind older shopper, a woman on a mobility scooter, dressing the boy in a long-sleeved shirt and pants she bought for him.
As she dressed the toddler, his mother stood next to the trolley fiddling with her phone.
Felicia later posted an update for her TikTok followers confirming that police were called on the mother.
‘Yes, we did call the police. I mean, why wouldn’t we? Why wouldn’t we?’ she said, holding back tears.
‘When you see a child that’s being neglected, don’t have on any clothes, just a diaper, no shoes, no socks, no shirt, no nothing. So why wouldn’t we call the police?’
Felicia said the woman asked her if she had a child and she did – but he died.
Behind her in the wall was a photo of a small child lying in a hospital bed with a tube down his throat.
‘If my child was living, ain’t no way in hell my child would be out there with no clothes on, just a diaper,’ she said.
In a reply to a comment on her video she wrote: ‘Some people don’t need kids! They need to tie her tubes and burn them’.
Felicia later said hours after she posted the original videos, her manager called her demanding she take them down – which she did.
She was not rostered to work 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 sake. No I wasn’t thinking about the consequences at the time, At that time my main focus was on that innocent poor child, and to get him some help,’ she said.
‘Now I’m jobless because I was only trying to help and save that baby life.’
A fundraiser to pay Felicia’s bills while she looks for a new job has amassed almost $4,000.
Former Planned Parenthood director Dr Abby Johnson was one of many viewers horrified by the videos after they were reposted to Twitter.
‘It would be impossible for me not to grab that baby and hold him next to my body until he warmed up and stopped shaking. If this woman treats him like this in public, just imagine what is happening to him in private,’ she wrote.
‘I hope her children are removed and placed into a safe, loving home. So many families would be willing to provide that home for him, including ours.’
Jackson Police Department did not answers calls to confirm if any action was taken against the boy’s mother.
James Parker is a UK-based entertainment aficionado who delves into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry. From Hollywood to the West End, he offers readers an insider’s perspective on the world of movies, music, and pop culture.
