Today I was in a small airport in Myrtle Beach and on my way to my gate I saw a hopelessly lost little boy who couldn't find his mother. I approached him and asked if he was lost, he said yes so I walked him over to the nearest gate where there was an airport staff member. I described what had happened and explained that he could not find his mom. It just so happened that the mom was waiting nearby after they had paged her kid. I expected a thank you or something for finding her kid but instead she demanded that a police officer be called and that I should be arrested. An airport police officer did come and I had to spend 45 minutes in a side room explaining that I was just trying to help. The officer (a woman) then explained to me that it looks really suspicious when a man has someone else's child with them and that next time I should refrain from helping.

I guarantee that if a woman had helped this child it would not have been questioned. Has anyone else been in a situation where being a man and trying to help has been looked at negatively?