Police in Cleveland, USA, are investigating a case of child cruelty after a woman uploaded photos to Facebook showing a man dragging a young girl around a supermarket with her hair tied to his trolley. 

Erika Burch uploaded the photos two days ago, saying she was in a local Wal-Mart when she spotted the man dragging the girl around. 

"He had her hair wrapped around the buggy," she wrote. "She was saying 'please stop, I promise I won't do it again, please stop!'"

Photo: Erika Burch/Facebook

Mrs Burch whipped out her phone and snapped photos of the incident, and then approached the man and demanded that he let the girl go. She said the man's reply was to "mind my own business", with the man adding "I grew up just fine". 

In her Facebook post, Mrs Burch said she had alerted police officers nearby, only for them to tell her that there was nothing they could do as there were no signs of bodily injury on the child. 

Outraged by the response, Mrs Burch posted the photos on Facebook and urged people to share them and contact Cleveland police. "This is beyond wrong and something needs to be done about it!" she wrote. 

Her plea worked better than she might have expected. The photos have been shared 133,000 times and her original Facebook post has over 4,660 comments. 

After local news sites picked up the story, the Cleveland Police Department issued a statement assuring the public that the case was being investigated by its detective division.