As I strolled the aisles of the Expo Ave. Costco yesterday around lunchtime, I noticed an open gun safe over in the tools area. Had I tarried a while longer I would have witnessed what must have been a pretty scary scene as an 11-year-old boy walked inside and closed the door behind himself.
The safe’s locking mechanism is battery-operated, but when store personnel tried to get the safe open, the battery was either dead or missing, leaving the boy inside, Doucette said.
My first thought was, what is the problem over there at the Costco, are they running some sort of massive faceless warehouse where every man woman and child fends for himself with no human courtesy to save us from a million opportunities for certain death? And then I remembered that this is exactly what Costco is; that, plus free samples.
I do actually kind of feel sorry for the folks at the Costco, since you gotta think the peons who run the floor have no say over the merchandise and clearly don’t get trained on each item Costco sells. And I can even imagine myself pulling a prank on my own family and getting myself trapped in one of those things. “Kids, stay with Mom, Daddy has to use the potty…”
The Sac Rag 
as a father of two, I place the blame squarely on the shoulders of the child. Any 11 year old who doesn’t have a developed sense of self preservation to prevent locking themself inside a safe has a problem.
Now, when I jumped off the roof with a glad leaf bag for a parachute at the same age, it was a totally different circumstance.
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Anyone think we can coax RM out for a group trip to Costco?
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Maybe the kid was playing hide and seek… who knows. Freak accidents like this happen, and sometimes kill children. Not too long ago a couple of kids died back East after hiding in a car’s trunk. They don’t understanding the danger of asphyxiation.
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The gun safe is where I put my kids when they are bad. Or when I need to run to the store for a carton of Camels. As long as the guns are on the other side of the door from the kids, who cares?
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It didn’t take the fire department long to get it open, apparently, as I saw them pulling up as I was eating at subway, and they were leaving by the time I had finished and strolled over.
The employees were all visibly shaken, though somewhat equally critical of what the kids were doing running around unsupervised. My thoughts were along the line of how dangerous/irresponsible it was for costco to have a working safe open out on the floor… but as we checked out almost an hour later I heard the checker say something funny: “Hey, look, that kid who got locked in the safe is still running around… really? Where the ****’s his dad at???”
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People are stupid. I sometimes think this is nature’s way of eliminating the dumb.
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Sounds like that kid needs a good kick in the ass, maybe the parents too.
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