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Parents 'using Reigate toy shop Miwk for child-minding' Reigate toy shop: 'We are not a child-minding service'
(about 1 hour later)
Parents have been leaving groups of children unattended in a Surrey toy shop while they go off shopping or to the dentist, it has been claimed. Parents have been urged to stop abandoning their children in a toy shop while they go off shopping.
Matthew West of Miwk in Reigate has put an appeal on Facebook asking parents to stop treating his business like a child-minding service. Matthew West, of Miwk in Reigate, Surrey, said his shop was not a child-minding service.
On one occasion, he called police about children left for two hours to find their mother was in Croydon, he said. He said he once called police because three children had been there for two hours - their mother was tracked down 14 miles away in Croydon.
Surrey Police have not yet commented to the BBC. Other times staff have had to stay late because young children were still there when the shop closed.
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On Facebook, Mr West wrote: "Nobody is watching your kids. We have a tough enough time looking after our own." Mr West wrote on Facebook: "Nobody is watching your kids. We have a tough enough time looking after our own."
He added: "We're not unreasonable here. We get regular kids popping in after school or during the holidays to browse and kill some time. We're fine with that. He said staff understood people liked to browse, but the business had been used as extended childcare by people who were not customers and did not intend to buy anything.
The woman who left three children there for hours was buying a mattress and had not wanted to take them with her, he said.
Surrey Police has not yet commented on that case.
Mr West said: "We're not unreasonable here.
"We get regular kids popping in after school or during the holidays to browse and kill some time. We're fine with that.
"But we are not a child-minding service. Knowingly leaving your kids in a shop while you do something else is not fair on them or us.""But we are not a child-minding service. Knowingly leaving your kids in a shop while you do something else is not fair on them or us."
He said staff understood people liked to browse but the business had been used as extended childcare by people who were not customers and did not intend to buy anything.
Some parents had failed to collect children by closing time, resulting in shop workers staying late to watch children aged between seven and 12, he added.