Bad Santa: Family wants firing after mall employee told boy to ‘lay off the hamburgers’

A North Carolina family wants a local mall “Santa Claus” out of a job for telling their son to cut some calories from his diet.

The Mayse family in Forest City, North Carolina, told a local ABC affiliate on Tuesday that a local Santa left their son in tears over the weekend. Anthony, age 9, said he tore up his picture with the holiday gift-giver before going to bed.

“When he got done he said, ’Lay off the hamburgers and french fries,’” the boy told the station. “That really just disrespected me, and I felt awful.”

“He acted like he didn’t want to be there to do the job,” added Anthony’s mother, Ashley. “[It was] very rude. I’ve never seen anything like it. […] I was just mind-blown. I wished one million times that we would have never went. I’m hoping he’s fired because I don’t want any other kid feeling the way [Anthony] did Saturday.”

Anthony had just asked for a drone and an iPod Touch when the incident occurred.

“You don’t want to disrespect a 9-year-old,” the boy told the station. “When he went to apologize to me, he didn’t even mean it.”

Ashley Mayse told the station that when she confronted the mall employee on his behavior he said he “didn’t know” what came over him.