A mum who ordered a must-have Christmas toy from eBay found RAZOR blades taped inside the packaging – designed to injure anyone who opened the box.
Horrified Leanne Ange ordered a Fingerling puppet for daughter Lila, 6, from a Hong Kong based seller.
When it arrived she was found someone had taped two razor blades to the inside of the box – and had left spots of blood on the cardboard.
The toy arrived wrapped in bubble wrap inside a plastic bag.
The box itself had not been shrink-wrapped and contained no batteries or information about safe usage.
The 32-year-two is on maternity leave but usually works as a ticket attendant at a theatre in Swindon, Wilts.
She said: “I ordered it off eBay from a company based in London. Well, the page said it was based in London but since then I’ve found out they are based in Hong Kong.”
Mrs Anger ordered the toy on November 10. When the package arrived a week later (November 17) Sharon be begun to suspect something was wrong.
She added: “I was a bit suspicious. I’d heard stories about people getting ripped off.
”The one I ordered was advertised as a genuine Fingerling but given how in demand they are I was ready for it to be a fake.
“My first thought was that someone had innocently left [the razor blades] there,” she said.
“The more I thought about it the more I became suspicious that it could not have been an accident. Someone had clearly cut themselves and bled into the box.
“I think it was one hundred per cent intentional. I didn’t want to come to that conclusion but I couldn’t ignore it.
“I just want people to be careful over the Christmas period when they are ordering their presents online. People need to be cautious because there are malicious people out there
“Normally I wouldn’t want to open the box before Christmas. I’d want Lila to be able to do from under the tree once it was wrapped up.
“But I had suspicion that it would be a knock off counterfeit. I’m just glad I did.”
Sharon’s six month old son was sat on her lap when she opened the box. She describes him as a ‘grabber’.
Luckily, he didn’t stick his hands into the booby-trapped box
Leanne logged a complaint with eBay and reported the seller to the police, who told her to destroy the toy and its packaging.
WowWee, the company that makes authentic Fingerlings, says it is aware of the counterfeit problem – and sued 165 counterfeiters last month.
A representative of WowWee said: “We know Fingerlings is a high-demand toy, and we’re working very closely with our retail partners to ensure stores are stocked this holiday season.”
