Parents 'sick to stomach' after finding toothpick in toy at Kilmarnock Tesco

It was found sticking out the head

Author: Natasha RichardsonPublished 30th Sep 2021

A Kilmarnock mum says she feels ‘sick to her stomach’ after finding a toothpick inside a cuddly toy at Tesco.

Emily Stuart had given the Talking Bing toy to her five-month-old son in his pram as they walked around the supermarket on Saturday.

She noticed something sticking out after he started crying, and then discovered a scratch on his head.

“You think it’s safe”

Emily says, “He had been quite happy, amusing himself. When he started crying all of a sudden, that was when my partner took the toy off him.

"I then noticed a cocktail stick had pierced through the top of the toy and scratched him above his right eye.

“To think that someone has done that to a kid’s toy on purpose, to deliberately try and harm a child, makes us feel sick to our stomachs.

“That is why we want to raise awareness and let parents know. It’s not something you think to check. You think it’s safe.

“I am thoroughly checking all his toys now, squeezing them and making sure there is nothing there. This wasn’t visible to the eye. It was hidden right in the head and it wasn’t until he was squeezing and playing with it that it poked through.

“I just think, if we had got that toy home, there would have been no reason to think he would have harmed himself. I hate to think what the outcome would have been if we hadn’t noticed when we did.”

A Tesco spokesperson said, “We were very sorry to hear about this. We apologised to the customer in store and are investigating how this happened.”

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