I'm so disturbed a parent would do this!

I was out Christmas shopping today with my husband at the mall and witnessed something very disturbing. We were in Spencer's looking around when we heard this little kid start to scream and cry. First of all I have to say Spencer's is not a store I would go in with my kids for many reasons so that alone disturbed me a little. Anyway, I turned around to see what was going on and the little kid came running around the corner screaming with tears running down his face. My husband and I kind of looked at each other like, "what the heck?" Eventually the kid went back to his parents, then again started screaming and ran away. After this happened three times I looked around the corner to see what was going on. The mother, of all people, had picked up a Chucky doll that was as big as the kid was and was waving it around at him. The mother did this two more times before the clerk finally came over and told her to stop. Now I have to make clear that this kid WAS NOT laughing or happy in any way, shape or form, he was terrified of this doll. Yet even after the clerk left the parents were both laughing about it. How could a parent do this to their child???