Strawberry stocks cleared off shelves at Meadowbrook after needles found
Police are investigating after two needles were found in strawberries sold at a Woolworths store south of Brisbane.
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Police are investigating after two needles were found in strawberries sold at a Woolworths store south of Brisbane.
2018: STRAWBERRY FARM METAL DETECTORS
Police said the two needles were found in punnets of strawberries sold at Woolworths at Meadowbrook, where store assistants removed all stock from shelves overnight.
The two punnets are now in investigators’ possession.
“Two items were purchased from the store at Meadowbrook but nobody was injured and police are making inquiries as we speak,” police said.
Meadowbrook man Raymond Kelly contacted police yesterday after claiming to find the needles in the fruit after buying two different branded punnets from the store.
He was chopping up the fruit for his daughter’s lunch when he spotted a sliver of metal.
he said he was “gutted” and feared his daughter could have choked on the metal spikes.
“Just sickening. I don’t know how anyone could do this.”
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Mr Kelly said police were “shocked” by the discovery and said he informed the store after telling police.
“They didn’t believe me at first, until I said I notified police,” he said.
Woolworths said it had inspected other punnets but had found no other needles and was now helping with the investigation.
It is the first finding of needles in strawberries since the industry was brought to its knees in 2018 at the start of the strawberry season.
That incident led to tonnes of the fruit being dumped.