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Calgary Dad Angry After 11-Year-Old Son Detained In Lego Store

Dad Angry After 11-Year-Old Detained In Lego Store
A man passes by the newly-opened store of Danish construction toys group Lego on October 18, 2012 at the 'So Ouest' shopping center in Levallois-Perret, west of Paris. AFP PHOTO/THOMAS SAMSON (Photo credit should read THOMAS SAMSON/AFP/Getty Images)
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A man passes by the newly-opened store of Danish construction toys group Lego on October 18, 2012 at the 'So Ouest' shopping center in Levallois-Perret, west of Paris. AFP PHOTO/THOMAS SAMSON (Photo credit should read THOMAS SAMSON/AFP/Getty Images)

A Calgary dad says he wants an apology after Lego Store staff called security on his 11-year-old son.

Doug Dunlop told CBC News his son Tadhg, an avid Lego collector, visited the Chinook Centre store on April 26 with $200 of his own money. When store staff found out Tadhg was 11, they called security and Tadhg was asked to wait until his dad arrived.

“I was, of course, shocked,” Dunlop said.

The manager told him the store’s policy requires children under 12 to be accompanied while shopping.

But Dunlop told CTV News that Tadhg had shopped in the store alone many times before.

"That policy is not posted anywhere, and I think it's a ridiculous rule. Their core customers are 9- to 11 year-olds," he said.

A Lego spokesperson told the network the company’s biggest concern is for children’s safety, and that the store was just following protocol.

Dunlop wrote in a blog post that the security guard he spoke with claimed child abductions were frequent at the mall, and that both the guard and manager implied Dunlop was a bad parent if he didn’t understand why leaving his son alone in a store was dangerous.

In an update posted Wednesday, he wrote that he had spoken with a Lego Store district manager, who agreed to put up a sign in the store stating its policy.

However, he still wants both the store manager and the security guard to apologize.

“Please understand that I am not asking that the Lego Store run a babysitting service for anyone who comes to the mall,” he wrote. “I am merely asking that paying customers of any age be treated with the respect that they deserve.”

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