Mum finds rusty homemade knife in kid's painting set from Kmart
A horrified mum claims her young son found a rusty hand-made knife in a children’s painting set from Kmart.
Sally Barnden recently posted an image of the blade and what appears to be a makeshift handle made out of tape on Facebook to warn others, saying the discovery gave her the “fright of her life”.
The ‘Paint Your Own Pet Set, which had been given to her other child as a gift, was sitting on a table when the knife slipped out, she said.
Ms Barnden said the woman who purchased the set had no idea what was inside and called the store.
“They said "Yeah this happens a bit in our store, but we don't have the staff to be checking every box’,” Ms Barnden wrote on Facebook
“Then offered our friend a refund!
“I am sorry but a refund would not be cutting it, if Henley had cut himself on this very sharp, and very rusty blade!”
Ms Barnden’s partner, Renee King, said the couple was not impressed with the store’s response.
"We wanted the store to be aware, but we felt like the store did not care and did not have the resources for it,” Ms King told the Gympie Times.
“It is not that hard to have extra staff on especially if it is a known issue, but we are lucky that he was not hurt.”
On Facebook, Ms Barnden said more staff should be at the store “checking for these things”, claiming that the contents of the box would’ve had to have been removed for someone to put the knife in.
“Surely someone saw something,” Ms Barnden said.
“And if the box was purchased and returned. Shouldn't every return be checked before placing it on the shelf again for sale?”
Ms Barnden said she was thankful her child was not harmed by the knife, but worried about what could have happened if it had ended up in the hands of another child.
“I can't even imagine what would have happened with another family, imagine kids discovering this, and thinking it was a toy considering it came from a kids art set,” she said.
Speaking to the Gympie Times, Ms King admitted she should have checked the box, and warned other parents to look for unwanted items.
Yahoo News Australia has reached out to Kmart for comment.
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