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Stinky Situation

A Philadel­phia toddler’s mother was tick­eted when her potty-training son uri­nated on the street. Car­o­line Rob­boy said she was shop­ping with her 2-year-old son, Nathaniel, and other fam­ily mem­bers Sun­day when the boy said he needed to go to the bath­room. Rob­boy asked an employee at the store to use a bath­room and was told the facil­i­ties weren’t open to the pub­lic. As the fam­ily was leav­ing the store, Nathaniel took mat­ters into his own hands, walk­ing up to a light post and doing his busi­ness. A police offi­cer came over and wrote Rob­boy a ticket, which also came with a lec­ture. “He said, ‘I’m doing this for your own pro­tec­tion because God for­bid there might have been a per­vert out there look­ing at my son,’” Rob­boy said. The mother said she plans to fight the ticket, which car­ries a $50 fine. “It’s not about the $50,” Rob­boy said. “I want a place that feels friendly to me where my chil­dren feel safe and have pos­i­tive expe­ri­ences with police officers.”

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