Elderly woman found in cardboard box after being dumped by roadside

An elderly woman was found inside cardboard boxes on the side of a highway after being dumped by her family in Puebla, Mexico.

The locals in the Joaquín Colombres neighbourhood spotted the woman and offered her food, as she had not eaten anything in days. They later informed the authorities, who put her into the DIF facility.

The woman told the authorities that her family had left her there on purpose. She only had a few blankets with her that were spread out on the boxes. The incident sparked social media outrage in Mexico, with people slamming the woman's family for abandoning her so cruelly. It is still not known why her family left her in such a miserable state.

Tragically, this was not a one-off case. Similar incidents have been reported from across the world. The practice is called "granny dumping" wherein families who are unable to afford or look after their elderly relatives end up abandoning them.

In 2015, a British man, Simon Hayes, flew an American dementia patient, Roger Curry, to the UK and left him in a car park. The man had done so at the behest of the elderly man's son, Kevin Curry.

The 76-year-old man had no ID and had no idea where he was when he was discovered outside a bus station in Hereford in November 2015. Hayes was later sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison at Worcester Crown Court. He became the first person in the UK to be jailed for granny dumping.

Similar cases are reported in countries like Japan, India, the UK, and the US every year. In Japan, the horrible practice is called "ubasute," and has been attributed to low income, abject poverty, and in some cases, it is just a case of heartless family members who choose to abandon their elderly parents and relatives.

Around 100,000 elderly relatives are dumped by family members every year in the United States as well. Experts claim that the lack of finances in most cases forces families to leave their elderly.

According to a report in The Mirror, the average weekly cost of living in a residential care home in the UK is £704, while live-in carers charge around £900 to £1400 per week for their services.