CORSICANA, Texas (AP) – A teenager lived undetected for two days at a 24-hour Wal-Mart in Texas after running away from his aunt’s home, police said Wednesday.
A store employee in Corsicana, about 50 miles south of Dallas, eventually discovered the 14-year-old boy when he was spotted stepping out from behind some boxes in the baby apparel aisle.
When the employee at the Supercenter pushed aside the boxes, a number of items were found indicating the teen had been staying awhile, Wal-Mart spokesman Brian Nick said.
“Normally if there’s a child missing in a store we’re actively looking for that child,” Nick said. “But it’s a different matter when employees are unaware a child is missing. We just didn’t have any knowledge that this child was missing, and certainly not in one of our stores.”
A teenager walking around a Wal-Mart wouldn’t have caught an employee’s attention, Nick said, particularly in a Supercenter that’s at least 200,000 square feet with thousands of customers coming and going.
The boy pilfered food and drinks from the store and changed clothes periodically to avoid detection, KTVT-TV in Dallas/Fort Worth reported.
Corsicana police said in a statement Wednesday that the boy’s parents were out of town and he was staying with his aunt in Corsicana when he ran away July 28. He was found at the store two days later. Nick said he left the store when the employee spotted him, and Corsicana police found him outside. The teen, from nearby Rice, has a history of running away, tending to hide in abandoned homes and businesses, police said.
Wal-Mart doesn’t intend to seek charges against the teen, Nick said