DOUCHE OF THE DAY: Massachusetts man takes home TV, leaves kid during Black Friday shopping

Police remove a 2-year-old child from a car in a K-Mart parking lot. (wggb.com)

What a douche! Police say a Massachusetts man left his girlfriend's 2-year-old son in a car while he went shopping for Black Friday bargains, then went home with his new 51-inch flat screen television and left the toddler behind. Police, alerted by store security, found the boy asleep in the vehicle in a Kmart parking lot at about 1:30 a.m. Friday. They forced their way into the car and took the boy to the hospital as a precaution. Meanwhile, they tracked the man, who was identified as Anthony Perry, 34, to his Springfield home. The station reported that Perry was babysitting for his girlfriend who was working at the time. He told police he lost the boy while shopping, panicked and called someone else for a ride. The station reported that Perry did not alert Springfield police about the missing boy. Police could not immediately determine how Perry was able to lug the TV to his home without the car he drove to the store. The 34-year-old man was not arrested and not immediately charged, but police say they expect to charge him with reckless endangerment to a child. [Fox News]

Black Friday Sales Down, Even Though Crowds Grew

(KTLA-TV / November 23, 2012)

Thanksgiving day shopping appears to have taken a bite out of Black Friday sales. A report issued Saturday from retail technology company ShopperTrak found consumers spent $11.2 billion at stores across the United States Friday. That's down 1.8 percent from last year's total. Meanwhile, ShopperTrak reported Black Friday store visits climbed 3.5% from last year to more than 307.67 million. This year's sales results appear to have been affected by hundreds of thousands of shoppers hitting sales Thursday evening instead of on Friday. "While foot traffic did increase on Friday, those Thursday deals attracted some of the spending that's usually meant for Friday," Bill Martin, ShopperTrak's founder, said in a statement. [KTLA]

Cyber Monday likely to be busiest online sales day

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO Warehouses like this, with carts full of products ready to ship, are indicative of the huge and growing online-buying movement.

Bye-bye Black Friday. So long Small Business Saturday. Now, it's Cyber Monday's turn. Cyber Monday, coined in 2005 by a shopping trade group that noticed online sales spiked on the Monday following Thanksgiving, is the next in a series of days that stores are counting on to jumpstart the holiday shopping season. It's estimated that this year's Cyber Monday will be the biggest online shopping day of the year for the third year in a row: According to research firm comScore, Americans are expected to spend $1.5 billion, up 20% from last year on Cyber Monday, as retailers have ramped up their deals to get shoppers to click on their websites. How well retailers fare on Cyber Monday will offer insight into Americans' evolving shopping habits during the holiday shopping season, a time when stores can make up to 40% of their annual revenue. With the growth in high speed Internet access and the wide use of smartphones and tablets, people are relying less on their work computers to shop than they did when Shop.org, the digital division of trade group The National Retail Federation, introduced the term "Cyber Monday." [USA Today]

Deputies Break Up Protest at Paramount Walmart, 9 Arrested

Sheriff's deputies were called in to break up a crowd of as many as 500 protesters outside of a SoCal Walmart Friday. Employees had organized a demonstration outside the Paramount Walmart as part of a nationwide protest organized by the union-backed group OUR Walmart. Walmart issued a statement Friday, saying that the company had a successful Black Friday despite the growing tension. "OUR Walmart group doesn't speak for the 1.3 million Walmart associates. We had our best Black Friday ever and OUR Walmart was unable to recruit more than a small number of associates to participate in these 'made for tv' events." Workers and supporters also rallied in Landover Hills, Md., Miami, Oakland, Calif., Chicago, Danville, Ky., Dallas and Kenosha, Wis. They are calling on Walmart to end what they call retaliation against speaking out for better pay, fair schedules and affordable health care. [KTLA]

'Dallas' star Larry Hagman Dies at 81

AP

Larry Hagman, who rose to super stardom playing the conniving and mischievous J.R. Ewing on the TV show "Dallas," died Friday at the age of 81. Meanwhile Saturday, the late "Dallas" star was honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. As fans looked on, a worker with the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce placed flowers on Hagman's star at 1560 North Vine Street, which sits near the star of his late mother, screen and stage star Mary Martin. [KTLA]