A mother in Sheffield, England is ready to shiv a questionable toy maker after finding a makeshift, five-inch knife from the newly opened toy’s box in the mouth of her 11-month-old daughter.
Mother, Gina Barrett, was shocked to discover the blade that seemed to have come from the Poundstretcher box of a plastic tool set that the girl’s father had just opened for the toddler to play with. Eleven-month-old Poppy had received the present from her father, 32-year-old Stewart Watts, after he returned from an Army base in Catterick, where he was working as part of the Yorkshire Regiment.
Not since Dan Aykroyd’s ?Bag of Glass? has a toy been so edgy.
Of course, in this case, Poundstretcher did not intentionally provide a child with a dangerous, sharp object to play with, and claims it is investigating the matter, but the toymaker hasn’t exactly been Johnny on the spot about responding to Barrett’s phone calls regarding the matter, either.
Barrett stated:
?I am disgusted. How could something like this happen?
?Luckily Poppy did not get hurt, because Stewart was with her, but she is at the age where you can leave her to play with things. She’s always putting things in her mouth.?
Poppy’s father had bought the gift earlier in the month for ?11.99, and never fathomed the toy he presented to his daughter might be dangerous, naturally. It came in a train-shaped box and was supposed to contain only plastic tools inside, not something that looks like it was fashioned in a prison kitchen.
The knife, however, remains a mystery, as it is a strange bit of handy work that put that shoddy blade together.
It looks to be nothing more than a blade with a cardboard handle fashioned around one end for a handle, as if someone had wrapped a toilet or paper towel roll around one end. That’s an odd too to use by a toy company, so why was it there? It hardly seems like something a worker placed down by mistake inside the box. Maybe some kind of slave, prison labor, though. Who knows? You never know in this world, in this day and age.
Barrett stated:
?The kit is in a train set and all the tools are inside and there is [sic] spaces for them all to fit in.
?My partner opened it, but didn’t see the knife and put it down for Poppy to play with
?She took all the tools out and they were on the floor.
?She picked up the knife and that was when Stewart noticed it. She put the shiny bit of the knife in her mouth.
?It’s a knife with a long blade with cardboard wrapped around part of it.?
Barrett added:
?The toy had been reduced but it was all sealed up when he bought it.
?We looked on the cardboard on the back of the toy to check that all the tools were in it.?
Understandably upset that her child had been put in danger by a youngster’s toy, Barrett tried calling Poundstretcher numerous times to file a complaint, but the company brushed her off.
Barrett said:
?I called several times and nobody rang me back for a few days. I couldn’t believe it.?
Poundstretcher referred to the whole affair as an ?unfortunate incident.? One company spokesperson stated eventually:
?We would like to apologise [sic] to Gina and her family.
?Our products are rigorously tested by the manufacturers and we are investigating how this unfortunate incident happened.?
Poundstretcher might want to try ?rigorously testing? their quality control employees while they’re at it.
Let us know your thoughts at the Liberal America Facebook page. Sign up for our free daily newsletter to receive more great stories like this one.
H/T: www.yorkshirepost.co.uk / (Featured image courtesy of YouTube)
Dylan Hock is a poet, novelist, professor and social activist. He is published in a number of little magazines and has an essay on the muzzling of Ezra Pound included in the anthology Star Power: The Impact of Branded Celebrity. Currently, he also writes and edits for If You Only News, Addicting Info, Green Action News, and Take 10. Follow him on Ello, Google+, LinkedIn, RebelMouse and Goodreads. Hire him for freelance writing and editing work on Elance.
