Urgent alert: Aussie family finds needle in orange from Woolworths
A family from Casula in Sydney’s southwest have found a needle lodged inside an orange they purchased from a Woolworths store yesterday.
A distraught 4-year-old, Maddie Sheridan, found the needle after getting a piece of fruit from her mum, reported 7News.
The supermarket confirmed the discovery of the needle and notified police.
“We’re shocked. We feel violated,” Maddie’s mum said.
Investigators will now work to determine when the orange may have been contaminated, as the orange may have been in storage for several weeks.
It has been almost two months since the initial needle sabotage began in Queensland, which saw strawberry brands Berry Obsession, Berry Licious and Donnybrook all contaminated.
By mid-September, all six states were investigating reports of tampering in strawberries, apples and bananas.
After the disturbing trend extended beyond the original single grower in Queensland, authorities feared that copycat attacks were occurring.
Exporters have since been instructed to prove their fruit is clear of tampering by putting it through a metal detector or x-ray machine.
In October, a 12-year-old boy was left panicked after he almost swallowed a “piece of thick wire” hidden inside a cucumber.
While speaking to 3AW, the boy’s mum Maria said: “As soon as he came out of his room he said: ‘Mum I found a needle in it’.”
“I said, 'Come on stop joking’ and he goes, 'Mum, I’m not joking’ and showed it to me.
“I was just beside myself. It looked as though it had been snapped with some pliers, it was curled on one end of it.”
Maria said her son was “pricked” by the wire but that it “didn’t penetrate him”.
“He was so upset… he said, ‘Mum if I had swallowed it could I have died?’” she said.
“He was just so worried, he was panicking."
WA Premier Mark McGowan said the offenders were liable to 20 years’ imprisonment.
“If you undertake this sort of activity you can and will be caught,” he told reporters in September.
“Those people deserve to go to jail.”