Woman witnesses adult Aldi shopper 'snatch Dyson from child's hand' amid frenzy

A woman who found herself in the middle of a “feral” Aldi sale on Dyson vacuum cleaners said she witnessed one customer snatch the product out of a child’s hands.

Considered to be one of the most sought after special buy items of the year, two variations of the Dyson vacuum cleaner were available, which included a handheld DC44 Animal for $299, and a DC29 Multifloor for $349.

Mary McKenzie was one of hundreds of customers to line up outside the Frankston store in Melbourne on Saturday morning.

While she knew it would be a frenzy to land the discounted vacuum, she wasn’t prepared for what came next.

“As it got closer to 8.30 you could feel a change, there was a determined look in their eyes and even adopted a different stance,” she told 3AW.

“We had a little girl next to us called Ava, 10-years-old, she said, ‘I had my hands on the box and somebody came and took it from underneath me’.

Many other disappointed shoppers said the items were sold out within just 30 seconds of the stores opening and took to social media to vent their frustrations.

"If you advertise something on the front of your catalogue you need to carry a decent amount of stock," one frustrated shopper wrote on Twitter.

"The Box Hill shop had about 10 in store to sell," they added.

"Feeling disgusted by the behaviour of some people pushing in front of me to get a Dyson vacuum this morning, after I was one of the first few in the line waiting for sometime before shops opened," another person wrote.

"Consequently I missed out. Disappointed Aldi staff let this happen... a number system could of prevented this."

Others questioned why hundreds of shoppers gave up a large chunk of their weekend "to get a 14% discount on a product that's three generations old".