David Kennedy (Squeezit)
1/5
On September 17th, my wife and I brought our 1 year old to this mall.
We let him run around (always in arms reach).
The highlight of the trip had to be the elevator ride. As we were stepping out, I held the door open, fully expecting the state-of-the-art safety mechanisms to kick in. Surprise! The doors started closing anyway! I mean, who needs reliable safety features when you can add a bit of adrenaline to your family outing? I had to joyfully shove my son out of the way and the doors graciously tried to crush my fingers instead. After the door closed with a death grip, I managed to pry them open... Just a little bit though, because clearly who needs a door that can open wide enough for a 1 year old's head to fit through.
A kindly GameStop employee graciously called mall security for us. Security arrived so fast, it took them no less than 10 minutes to arrive. He must have been very fit, because he wasn't the slightest bit winded after arriving in such a hurry to save a 1 year old. The guard showed up with a casual 'whatever' attitude which really set the tone for how much the mall cares.
He suggested letting the doors close again (genius, right? I mean, we definitely didn't think of that ourselves!), because you know they MIGHT open back up.
When we asked, "What if the elevator goes downstairs?" his calm response was, "It'll be fine."
The rebellious childnapping elevator whisked our son downstairs. But not to worry: the security guard promised to retrieve him and walked off with the urgency of someone going to refill their coffee. Meanwhile, I had the pleasure of sprinting across the mall, down the escalator, back to the elevator where I found my child running wild, yards away from the elevator!
Thankfully the elevator chose not to attempt to remove my sons arm this time around, so I caught my unsupervised kid and sat down to catch my breath. After several minutes, the security guard leisurely reappeared, probably from a well-deserved nap. When I suggested puttin an "Out of Order" sign on the elevator, he reassured me with the confidence of someone who genuinely cares: "Oh it's working now, it'll be fine."
All in all, 5 star experience for anyone looking to add a bit of danger to their thrilling mall visit.
