A waitress at a Florida restaurant has been hailed a hero after saving a young boy from an abusive home by flashing him a secret sign. Flavaine Carvalho was concerned about the child after serving his family at the Mrs. Potato Restaurant in Orlando on New Year’s Day and noticing that they refused to give him any food. She also noticed he had a scratch on his head, and decided to ask him if he needed help without his parents noticing.
- Carvalho flashed signs to the 11-year-old boy behind his parents’ back. The notes read “are you ok?” and “do you need help?” and while the boy wasn’t immediately able to indicate that he was in trouble, he eventually let her know that he desperately needed help. Carvalho then called police, who were able to rescue the boy and keep him from having to return home with his parents.
- Who takes their child to a restaurant and doesn’t feed them? Carvalho said in a video posted on Facebook by the Orlando Police Department that she asked the step-father, since identified as Timothy Wilson II, whether everything was okay with the food since she noticed the boy had none. He responded that everything was fine and that the child would eat at home later, but she knew something was up. “It was super strange to me. I could see that he was super quiet and sad,” Carvalho said.
- A police investigation uncovered some serious abuse. As authorities began to look into the abuse, they found that the parents had a history of mistreating the boy, KSAT reports. The boy told authorities that not only had he been struck with a wooden broom, but he had also been handcuffed and hung upside down from a door with ratchet straps around his neck and ankles. He was also refused food regularly as a way to punish him for what the abusers deemed bad behavior.
- Thankfully, the parents were arrested. Wilson was taken into custody on January 6 and charged with one count of child neglect and three counts of aggravated child abuse. His mother, 31-year-old Kristen Swann, was arrested the same day and faces two counts of child neglect for allowing the abuse to happen and not turning Wilson in.
- Carvalho is now considered a hero for acting quickly. “By saying something when she saw something, Ms. Carvalho displayed courage and care for a child she had never even met before, and we’re proud someone like Ms. Carvalho lives and works in our community,” the Orlando Police Department said in a Facebook post.
