ALBAWABA - A man who was climbing Mount Fuji in Japan with his sons left his seven-year-old son with snacks and a soft drink after he complained of being tired.
The boy was discovered by a worker sitting alone on a bench near the sixth station of the Fujinomiya trail at an altitude of more than 2,000 meters, after realizing what happened, the worker called the police who came and took care of the boy – sheltering him in their police station.
The father was climbing Japan’s tallest mountain, Mount Fuji, with his two sons, as his first son had already gone ahead up the mountain, the father wanted to follow him, leaving his younger seven-year-old son near a climbing station after he complained of being too tired to continue climbing.
It would have taken the father eight hours to come back for the boy if he had continued climbing; fortunately the police got in touch with the father as he reached the eighth station up the mountain, a three-hour hike from where he left his son.
They told the man to turn back which he promptly did, and reprimanded him after he arrived at the police station,
“Even if it means having to give up on climbing the mountain together, leaving a child behind is unacceptable,” officers said, according to Japan Today.
The main worry of the officers was that the weather on the mountain has its own micro-climate so it could change unpredictably, potentially leaving the abandoned child in a snowstorm or avalanche by himself.
The father apologized to the police, saying: “I made a rash decision, and I deeply regret it.”
