Shopping at a Coquitlam Value Village last week resulted in shock and upset for a Pitt Meadows family, whose six-year-old son found a needle and toxic glue inside a Mouse Trap game.
The Selman family wants policy changes or a better checking system at the chain of thrift stores to ensure games are safe before they are sold.
“We have a right to expect the products we buy from those places are safe and to come across this was a little shocking,” said Mitch Selman, who said he was disappointed at the store’s phone message response to his complaint.
His wife, Paula, purchased the game at the Value Village on United Boulevard on Saturday and let her son and two neighbor children take the game to play with it.
A few minutes later their son showed them he had found a needle, and had taken the cap off. Two tubes of toxic glue were also in the game box.
“Things could have gone wrong 20 different ways,” Selman said.
The family tried to speak to a manager to register a complaint and get assurances that policies were in place to prevent such an occurrence but all they received in response was a sorry in a telephone message and a suggestion they go back to the store to take advantage of 30% off sales.
“You need to acknowledge you’ve got problem, do something about it and and say ‘thank you very much,’” Selman said.
When he didn’t receive satisfaction, he went to the media in the hopes of getting the large chain to take action.
In an email, a spokesperson for Value Village in Bellevue Washington, said that items received are supposed to be checked.
“The safety of our customers and team members is of utmost importance to us. All of our stores have strict evaluation policies in place and are committed to evaluating all items for quality assurance before they go to the sales floor.”
However, that didn’t happen with the Mouse Trap game and the Selman family is still waiting for answers.
“You can’t have kids opening toys and finding hypodermic needles, you can’t do it, it’s just ridiculous. What’s going on that a hypodermic needle gets through their check system? A little more of a heartfelt apology, without trying to sell me more crap would be nice, and an acknowledgment that something is wrong.”
