Mum's race against time to stop son eating strawberry with needle inside
When Queensland mum Angela Stevenson cut into a strawberry to make the horrific discovery of a sewing needle inside, she knew she had a race against time before her young son tucked into the fruit in his school lunchbox.
Ms Stevenson was cutting up a strawberry for her 12-month-old baby girl on Tuesday morning when she was shocked to cut into metal.
Immediately she thought of her nine-year-old boy who she had given the same strawberries to take to school in Gladstone.
“I rang the school to say, ‘Can you stop him from eating his strawberries? Because we found a needle in one of them’,” she told 7 News.
“They rang me back, not even five minutes later, and said, ‘we were a bit late’.
“He’d already eaten at his fruit break and took a bite out of one of the strawberries.
“He didn’t get hurt or anything – didn’t get pricked. He obviously bit into it, felt it, pulled it out and told the teacher ‘there was a needle in my fruit’ and everyone was sort of gobsmacked as to why? How did it get there?”
The mum went back to Woolworths at Kirkwood and showed pictures of the find in her son’s fruit.
At least four contaminated strawberry punnets sold from Woolworths have been found containing sewing needles sparking a recall of Berrylicious and Berry Obsession strawberries in NSW, Queensland and Victoria.
Ms Stevenson contacted police after seeing Wednesday’s joint press conference with Queensland Police and Queensland Health warning about the contaminated punnets.
‘Lucky baby girl didn’t eat strawberry with needle’
Ms Stevenson regularly feeds strawberries to her children. She’s thankful on this occasion she didn’t do what she does normally: pull the tops of the fruit off and feed them to her baby girl.
“She wouldn’t know and would probably just keep chewing on it,” she said.
“It was lucky I cut down on the right spot. We’re a bit lucky.”
Ms Stevenson said her nine-year-old boy is now a bit worried about eating strawberries. She said she will be cutting them up from now on.
The Gladstone resident said the family were still in shock after finding the needles.
“Surely it can’t be part of how they’re picking (the fruit),” she said.
‘What kind of person does that?’
The mum added she’s wondering whether someone’s put needles in the fruit “deliberately to hurt somebody”.
“What kind of person does that?” Ms Stevenson said.
“I don’t eat strawberries personally. I feed them to my children so it’s my kids that are going to get hurt, not me. It’s really awful to think somebody out there could do something like that.
“There’s no need for it. You’re going to be hurting potentially innocent children in my house and I hope they catch them and they get in big trouble for it.”
It’s not known who’s responsible for putting the needles in the strawberries but the Queensland Strawberry Growers Association says early indications are that a disgruntled farm worker may be responsible.
Police investigate ‘copycat’ contaminator
On Thursday, Queensland Police said there could be a copycat placing needles in strawberries following the discovery of a “thin metal object” in fruit bought from a Gatton supermarket.
Acting Detective Chief Superintendent Terry Lawrence said it could be a copycat incident, but police would always keep an open mind.
A photo in relation to the suspected copycat incident has been released as police continue their investigations.
More information
Queensland Police urge anyone with information on the strawberry contamination to contact Policelink on 131 444 or provide information using the online form 24hrs per day.
For more information regarding the police investigation click here.
If you are concerned you may have eaten any of the contaminated strawberries click here.
