STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. – An Oakland County mother is outraged after her daughter had a painful experience at the Chuck E. Cheese's in Sterling Heights.
Michaelena Dodge said her 3-year-old daughter's hair got caught in one of the ticket machines, leaving two bald spots on the girl's head. What really upset her was the lack of response from Chuck E. Cheese's.
Abby Dodge is still feeling the effects of what happened to her Saturday at the restaurant.
"She's had nightmares every night since, saying, 'My head, ow ow ow,'" Michaelena Dodge said.
Dodge said her daughter was preparing to put tickets in the ticket muncher machine when her hair got caught in it instead.
"It was like eating her hair, so I looked and there was no button, so I grabbed her and her hair at the top of the pony and pulled her as hard as I could," Dodge said.
The incident left two bald spots on her daughter's head.
"Her scalp was really red all the way to her forehead," Dodge said.
She said the reaction of Chuck E. Cheese's employees didn't help.
"It's a place designed for children to be, and then they didn't even care that she got hurt," Dodge said.
Dodge said the manager didn't fill out an incident report and told her someone would call her to figure out how to cover the medical bill. Instead, she said she got a popsicle, a voucher for 1,000 tickets and a mean comment.
"She said, 'Stuff happens when people don't watch their children,'" Dodge said.
Now Dodge said she wants Chuck E. Cheese's to do something about the ticket muncher to make sure this doesn't happen to another child.
"If there was a boy with a tie, it would have choked him," Dodge said. "That thing eats hair so fast."
Chuck E. Cheese's released the following statement:
"We’re aware of an incident that occurred on Saturday, Feb. 4 in our Sterling Heights restaurant, in which a child sustained a minor scalp injury while feeding tickets into the Ticket Muncher machine. The store manager on duty acted quickly to make sure the child was ok and we’ve since been in contact with her mother and offered to assist with any medical bills. We want to assure parents and caregivers that maintaining a safe experience for our guests is a primary concern for us."
Sign up for ClickOnDetroit breaking news alerts and email newsletters