What do YOU do?

This morning we went out to breakfast....
Just the local Denny's
As we arrive we notice a bit of a scene.
Mom and Dad are being screamed at by their son...about 11 or 12..as the scene goes on, it is rather obvious that the son is most likely autistic and in the middle of a meltdown. And not a small child.

Clearly, this is not terribly unusual...as Dad is handling it like a veteran. Kid gets in the car, then out, screams some more then bolts....he actually bolted twice...the last time we saw he went down and paced on the sidewalk by the street barefoot.

Do you ask Dad if he needs any help? Do you ignore it? What is the proper thing to do?

I know you dont do what one lady did....and that is call the cops....there was no reason for that....and being Irvine...you dont get one police officer...you get 3 cars....(DH thought they would earn 4)...there was no abuse, no man handling...clearly they were not kidnapping him....just trying to diffuse a meltdown.

When the cops arrived, they already had corraled the boy back to the car...and into the back seat...

They take dad away from the car, ask mom to step back and then try to talk to the boy, which results in a 2nd door ding to the car next to them....

At that point, we did offer mom a drink, did she need water, ice tea anything?

So they finish talking to the kid and walk away...what do you think the boy does? He got back out of the car....by now he is calmer and can easily be talked back into the car. The officers help them leave a note on the door dinged car (despite the fact the 2nd ding was done by the officer trying to help his partner talk to the boy) and they drove off to continue their journey....or return home.

But what would you have done? Would you have offerred the dad some assistance? Or do you just ignore it?