Over $60,000 has been raised for a quick-thinking waitress in Florida after she saved an 11-year-old boy from his abus*ve parents.
During her shift at the Mrs. Potato Restaurant, Flavaine Carvalho noticed something worrying when she served a family of three – the young boy was not eating anything.
When she asked if their son wanted to order, his stepfather, Timothy Wilson II, said that the boy would eat at home.
But Carvalho immediately noticed the bruises and scratches on the child’s face and arms.
“Couple of minutes later, I saw a bruise on the side of his eye. So I felt there was something really wrong,” she told Fox News 35.
Concerned for the boy’s safety, the server secretly showed him a note asking: “Do you need help? OK.”
When the child nodded, Carvalho quickly called 911, leading to the arrests of the boy’s mother, Kristen Swann, and Wilson.
The boy later told police a heartbreaking story of psychological and physical ab*se, revealing how he was punished with starvation, a wooden broom, and being hung upside down.
A spokesperson for police described it as torture, telling media outlets: “What this child had gone through, it was torture. Seeing what that 11-year-old had to go through; it shocks your soul.
“He said ratchet straps were tied around his ankles and neck, and he was hung upside down from a door. He said he was hit with a wooden broom, and handcuffed and tied to a large moving dolly.”
The police spokesperson also said that the boy did not get to eat on a regular basis.
Speaking to Fox News 35, Carvalho said she could not let the boy leave after seeing the obvious signs of ab*se.
“I could not see the boy going away without any help,” she said.
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