A mother called for the police to take charge when a man tried to pull her daughter off a swing at Livvi's Place, Ryde Park, Sydney.

The police responded immediately, spoke briefly to the man, and went away, as the mother did not press the complaint further! That put a stop to the issue.

This strange story has now become viral, with a storm of reactions from a public outraged over either one party or the other.

Elaine Stack, a 37-year-old bystander posted the story on Facebook and again stirred the controversy.

She wrote that the father first was waiting for the swing, while the mother told him to wait for five more minutes." The Father proceeded to stop the swing in motion & tried to lift the daughter out!" she wrote.

This put off the mother so much that she immediately asked the cops to come. "What would you do?!? Would you call the police?" asked Elaine.

The post erupted with another barrage of comments.

The pro-mother group agreed and slammed the father for "daring to touch another person's child" and "teaching his child disgusting manners and how to be impatient and rude."

The opposing side asked how the mother could call the police for such a trivial matter, which is anyway not going to penalize the man. "The police should fine her for wasting their time," said a respondent.

There is a third group that asked them both to "grow up" and remember that their children are learning from their example. "They were both wrong."

The response was "crazy", said Elaine to news.com.au. "I love a good debate, and people have been so passionate about this one."

Though she didn't see the situation close up as she had been standing far away, watching police enter the park could be a bit unnerving even to her. She spoke to the mother later, who informed them that she was upset and "intimidated". Being a regular at the park, she needs to feel "safe" there. "I wouldn't say she did the wrong thing or the right thing, she just did what she thought was best for her daughter," said Elaine.

Inspector Sharkey of Ryde Police agreed that the police had been asked to look into the incident. He repeated what had happened. "The police spoke to both parties, and no offence was detected by the police. Neither party wanted to make a further complaint."