Swedish authorities on Tuesday were investigating reports that a 10-year-old boy had been deliberately left out in freezing conditions because his father believed he had "played like crap" at a local sports event.
The youngster was discovered by a senior floorball team coach standing in the cold wearing only shorts and a T-shirt at a sports center in Uppsala, eastern Sweden, on Saturday evening, English-language news website The Local reported, citing other Swedish media reports.
The tearful boy explained that his father had left him there to walk home to Stockholm, some 25 miles away.
When the coach rang the father, the man allegedly said, "the boy played like crap and that he could walk home."
The boy in question has still not been identified because the senior coach, who arranged for another parent to pick the child up, did not take his name down nor ask which team he played for.
Nonetheless, the incident sparked uproar in Sweden once it emerged in the media, with Uppsala police receiving a record number of calls.
"I can't remember any incident where we have received this many calls, it's crazy. It is the behavior that many are reacting to. And if what is said is true, then it is shocking. But we don't know that yet," Christer Nordstrom, spokesperson for the Uppsala police, told news agency TT.
Police have now decided to turn the case over to the prosecutor's office.
"Prosecutors will try the case and see if there is suspicion of a crime," Nordstrom told the daily Svenska Dagbladet.
"We will identify these people so that we get this sorted out. And we are very eager to receive help from the general public," he added.
Floorball is a type of indoor hockey, popular in countries such as the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.
