A mum who found a knife inside the box of a toy doll says it could have been ‘fatal’ if a child had picked the toy.
Haleemah Patel spotted the blade inside a Blonde Tiny Tears Classic Doll at her local Aldi store after picking up the box for her two-year-old daughter.
Aldi say it was an isolated case in which packaging was deliberately tampered with as the product could not have been ‘compromised’ during manufacturing.
But Mrs Patel is now warning other parents to be vigilant following her shocking shopping trip.
The mum, from Blackburn, Lancashire, visited Aldi on Montague Street, Blackburn, to do her weekly shop on Monday (January 10).
The 29-year-old noticed the doll, selling for £16.99, and felt it would be ‘a lovely gift’ for her two-year-old daughter.
"I picked the toy up and the outer packaging was damaged on one side,” she told LancsLive .
“Looking at the toy my attention fell on a metal object. I was shocked and amazed to see a knife inside.
"I had to look twice to make sure it was a genuine knife. I couldn’t make sense why a knife would be part of a toy."
Mrs Patel quickly alerted a member of staff telling them "you need to take this to your manager straight away".
She claims the staff member took the item and she did not see him again during her shop.
The mum said it was "sad if someone’s put that inside deliberately and could have gone home to a small child.
"Aldi should look into how it got inside.”
Mrs Patel has shared photographs showing the blade inside the box packaging of the Tiny Tears Doll.
The knife sits behind the accompanied plastic bottle, with the blade pictured above the bottle and a yellow handle seen below.
Following the incident, Mrs Patel wants to raise the attention of parents who might miss what she says could have been "fatal".
She said: "I would like to raise attention to parents out there to be vigilant when purchasing toys and check to the contents inside as this could possibly have been fatal if my daughter had picked the toy up."
Aldi say the product was taken off the shelves and there is no indication any other products have been affected by what Mrs Patel says she discovered.
A spokesperson for Aldi said: "When Ms Patel noticed this Tiny Tears product had been tampered with, we immediately took it off sale.
“We can confirm that it is an isolated case where the packaging appears to have been deliberately tampered with.
"Our supplier has confirmed that the product passes through highly sensitive metal detectors before leaving their factory and the packaging could not have been compromised during the manufacturing process."
LancsLive approached trading standards at Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council for comment on the matter but did not receive a response prior to publication.
