Dreadful, dangerous and emotionally abusive thing to do to a 7 year old, as well as being an ineffective way of changing his behaviour. This incident is likely to reflect both the boy's behaviour and his parents way of dealing with it, so all is not well in the family is it. The boy is said to have been calm when he was found. I felt the father's attempts to weep weren't genuine either. I'm not suggesting he wasn't hugely relived that his son was found safe and well, nor that he regretted the actions in leaving the boy, more that the emotional life of this family is the real issue.