May 13, 2022
PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. — A Pierce County family opened up a gift for their 4-year-old’s birthday, but instead of a toy inside, the family says they found a package full of drugs.Lakewood Police say they tested the pills, and they came back positive for ecstasy.
“It’s like a nightmare,” said a Lakewood dad, who didn’t want to be identified or show his face on camera. He is concerned that someone is now missing their package of drugs and might be searching for it.
He did provide the police case number, and KIRO 7 confirmed with Lakewood Police that officers responded.
Lt. Chris Lawler said police used a field test kit and the contents “presumptively tested positive for MDMA/ecstasy”.
Now, the family is warning other parents about what happened to their family.
“It’s a bunch of unfortunate events, and how it occurred I have no clue,” the dad said. He said his son’s aunt shipped him a few gifts from Amazon. One item inside was supposed to be a Playmobil police toy kit.
“My son was walking around for three hours with this box waiting for me. Fortunately, he waited for me to get home,” the dad said.
He says they opened up the package together on the kitchen floor.
“I start opening it up, open up one layer of foil paper and I’m like, ‘this is kind of weird,’” he said. “Everyone’s like, ‘What is it? What is it?’ Everyone is freaking out.”
“I’m like, ‘They’re pills, pink pills, I’m not sure what it is,’” he said. He said he had the whole family wash their hands and go outside, and he called Lakewood Police.
The entire Amazon box with the Playmobil box, which he said also contained two books and for some reason, a few stray puzzle pieces, was handed over to officers.
“It’s ridiculous,” the dad said. “To know he (the 4-year-old boy) was carrying around anywhere from 500-1,000 ecstasy pills — the negligence,” he said.
He said it would have been even more worrying if his kids had opened up the package by themselves.
“My daughter (age 8) tells me, ‘Dad, I would’ve thought it was candy from my aunt and I probably would’ve ate it,’” he said. “The fact that it even got pretty darn close to that is alarming,” he said.
A Google search for “pink skull ecstasy” shows results that closely resemble what the family received.
In a statement, Playmobil’s Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Marc Shinderman, said:
“We just learned about this horrible incident and we will be cooperating fully with all legal authorities, Amazon and the consumer. At Playmobil, safety is paramount and at the forefront of every toy that we produce. We will be working diligently to determine how this happened.”
Amazon spokesperson Alisa Carrol said in an email, “We take these matters very seriously and are looking into it. We’re sorry this happened and will do what we can to make it right for the customer.”
