London: A woman in Australia forced her 10-year-old son to publicly wear a sign that read: "Do not trust me. I will steal from you as I am a thief", it was reported here.

The Telegraph said the boy wore the sign as well as a pair of Shrek ears and stood at a park in the Queensland town of Townsville. Shrek is a character in a computer-animated film.

His family had lunch nearby.

The incident sparked outrage with one person calling up the child safety hotline.

"The boy just kept his head down" and stared at the ground, eyewitness Diane Mayers told the Townsville Bulletin.

"The parents had gone to all the trouble of printing two copies of the sign - one for the back and one for the front - and laminating them. A lot of work had gone in to it."

When the boy took off the Shrek ears, Mayers said that his mother told him: "Put them back on or I'll smack your head in."

The boy's mother has, however, defended her action.

"We've had a process over the last three years of him shoplifting and stealing whatever he can get his hands on," the woman was quoted as saying.

"I have taken him to the police station, had the police officers take him around, shown him a paddy wagon (police van), shown him all the cells, shown him the process of being charged."

Yet, the boy last week stole some chocolate.

She hoped that her son has now learnt a lesson.

"...I don't think he will be game to do it again, I really don't but time will tell, soon as I trust him to go out to a shop," she said.


 

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