An Orlando Waitress Used A Concealed Sign To Save An Abused Child, Mother and Stepfather Arrested

Flavaine Carvalho, a restaurant employee, is being called a hero after saving an abused boy. Carvalho noticed that the child, who had visible bruises and was out to eat with his family, didn’t order food, which prompted her to write a note to the child.  The note read: “Do you need help? OK.”

The boy nodded, yes.

“You saved the boy’s life,” Rafaela Cabede, the owner of Mrs. Potato restaurant, said. “It brings us to tears to think that someone can do that to a child.”

According to CBS News, The 11-year-old told Orlando detectives that he had been hung upside down from a door, hit with a wooden broom, and handcuffed to a moving dolly. The boy also didn’t eat regularly. Timothy Wilson II, the boy’s stepfather, was arrested for third-degree child abuse.

“Abuse, I say lightly: It was torture,” Erin Lawler, a detective, said. “What this child had gone through, like I said, was just torture — there’s, there’s no justification for it in any realm.”

After investigating, the detectives arrested the boy’s mother, Kristen Swann — who acknowledged the abuse — for two counts of child neglect.

“He has all sorts of different stages of bruising, so it wasn’t like it was just one incident,” Lawler said. “It was ongoing abuse and torture.”

The Orlando Police Department said Carvalho was courageous to report what she saw.

“…[S]he rescued a boy from some dangerous abuse,” OPD said. ” 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.”

SEE SOMETHING SAY SOMETHING: An Orlando waitress saw a family withholding food from a boy at a table. She noticed bruises on his body and created this sign to secretly ask the child if he needed help. When he signaled "Yes" she called us. The stepfather & mother were arrested. pic.twitter.com/hJNT1nm0vI

— Orlando Police (@OrlandoPolice) January 14, 2021