I found rusty knife in my son’s toy shopping basket… he could’ve died from sepsis – Poundland offered me £20 vouchers
A MUM claims she feared for her son's life after finding a rusty knife in his Poundland toy - with the discount giant offering her £20 as an apology.
Allie Atherton, 32, says she couldn't believe her eyes when she found a "Stanley-style" blade in the child's shopping basket her toddler was playing with at home.
The mum says she'd bought the toy Leonardo, four, from Poundland store in Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire.
She was watching the tot play with the shopping basket when she spotted the rusty knife, and has now told of how thankful she was that he wasn't hurt by it.
Allie claimed that if she hadn't seen the blade Leonardo could have hurt himself - and even got sepsis and died.
She recalled: "I'd taken my little boy shopping. He'd been good so I thought I'd treat him to a toy. He's very much into his toy kitchens - all the fake food stuff. So I got him a toy shopping basket from Poundland.
Read more on UK news
"We got home and I opened it for him. I saw something was laid down with the fruit. It was barely visible at first until I opened the package up.
"I thought it was a fabric carrier bag and stuck my hand in it but it was solid. I picked it up and saw a blade was sticking out.
"I was speechless, I said: 'Leo get away from this basket'. I couldn't believe it."
The 32-year-old said she thought it could have come from the warehouse where everything's packed.
Most read in The Sun
The mum continued: "He could've cut his fingers and got sepsis because the knife was all rusty and horrible.
"He wanted to get stuck in straight away so I'm so glad I was there with him. Imagine if I had just left him to it - it's not worth thinking about."
Allie said Poundland had now offered her £20 in vouchers as an apology.
However, the mum said she didn't actually want to shop at the discount giant again after what happened.
She added: "I was shocked and mortified. I felt we were fobbed off with some vouchers when something really bad could've happened.
"I was regular, I used to shop there about once a week but now I won't go there after what happened. I do genuinely miss the shop for my bath products but I just don't trust them now.
"You don't know what's in there."
Poundland told The Sun: “We’re really sorry for this unexpected find and I know our customer service team has apologised to the customer directly.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
“As she knows, we’ve asked the supplier to investigate precisely what happened and we’re just grateful the knife didn’t cause any injury.
“We really appreciate her telling us about it.”
‘Not another one’ cry shoppers
By James Halpin
A MAJOR discount retailer with 800 stores has closed one branch for good.
Poundland in North Street, Brighton, shut its doors for the final time on Saturday with signs on the doors now telling shoppers the store is permanently closed.
Those wanting to buy discount homeware and DIY items will have to now shop elsewhere.
In its final weeks, Poundland Brighton had been selling items for 75 per cent off the normal price as it sought to flog as much stock as possible.
Shelves were empty on Saturday and staff could be seen taking down fittings in the store.
One fan said: "Not surprised there's one up the road and one 10 min along the road."
Another said: "I got good bargains in there the other day I actually paid a pound for things."
While a third said: "Now down to one store. A few years ago there were five in Brighton."
The nearest Poundland branches are in Western Road and London Road.
It is the second Poundland store to close this year after one at the Bay View Centre in Colwyn Bay, Wales, closed on January 5.
A spokesman for Poundland said: “The store closed on February 24 as sadly, we’ve been unable to renew the lease.
"It goes without saying we work hard to find other opportunities for colleagues in these circumstances and we have two other stores close by.
"We look forward to welcoming customers to those stores on London Road and Western Road which are both just a short walk away – they both carry much wider ranges than we could accommodate at North Street.”