A mum who discovered a knife in her daughter’s doll warns parents to be ‘vigilant

A mother has been left terrified after finding a weapon in a child’s toy she intended to buy for her daughter.

Haleemah Patel, 29, from Blackburn visited her local Aldi for her regular shop when she came across a Blonde Tiny Tears Classic Doll, selling for £16.99 and decided to buy it for her daughter as a treat.

Upon picking up the box, however, she realised the outer packaging was damaged and a sharp object had been placed inside.

While initially thinking the object might be part of the doll, Haleemah thought it odd that a toy knife would be included and soon discovered that it was in fact a real blade.

The knife appeared to have been sneakily tucked in behind doll’s plastic milk bottle and was not necessarily obvious to anyone not inspecting closely. 

Speaking to Lancs Live the mother revealed: ‘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.’

After Haleemah hurriedly informed a member of staff what she’d found and insisted the doll get taken to their manager, the toy was whisked off and she didn’t see it again.

The worried mother wants Aldi took investigate how the knife got inside the box and said, it would be ‘sad if someone’s put that inside deliberately and could have gone home to a small child’. 

The packaging of the toy has been tampered with and the sharp object appeared to have been purposefully hidden 

Now, Haleemah wants to make sure parents stay aware that other children’s toys could have been subject to the same macabre treatment, as she fears the consequences more knives aren’t spotted.

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.’ 

An Aldi spokesperson told Lancs Live: ‘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.’

Mail Online has contacted Darwen Borough Council for comment.