WARREN, Mich. (WXYZ) — "After 9/11, box cutters weren't allowed on airplanes. Box cutters aren't allowed in schools. These are considered weapons," said Stephanie Foster, who is the latest known parent whose child has reportedly found a box cutter in their McDonald's Happy Meal. "They didn't want to eat the food, which is understandable."
Foster, who reported finding the box cutter in a Happy Meal from a McDonald's in Highland Township on June 25, thought it may have been an isolated incident, but she would later learn of two other incidents 7 Action News reported on a couple weeks earlier.
On May 20, Kayla Almashy reported her daughter finding a box cutter in the Happy Meal she purchased for her at the McDonald's on West Grand River in Brighton.
Then, on June 11, Dawn Paret reported finding a box cutter in one of her children's Happy Meals to management at the McDonald's on Schoenherr near 13 Mile Road.
"Shock.. just complete shock," said Paret. "You don't, you don't expect to see that in a Happy Meal."
And now we're learning that those families weren't the only ones.
The first incident reportedly took place at a McDonald's on Gibraltar Road in Brownstown Township.
"Thankfully, none of these kids have been injured," Reaume told 7 Action News. "But it could be a very different situation if you have a two or three-year-old in the backseat that gets this and the safety wasn't over that."
And Reaume was stunned to find out that what she, too, thought was an isolated incident reportedly happened three more times.
"McDonald's really needs to look into their employees and look at, if there are cameras in these facilities, exactly what's happening?" Reaume asked. "It's bizarre to me that it's only happening on Happy Meals. And it's bizarre that, within (two) months, there were four incidents in Michigan."
When 7 Action News reported on two of the incidents last month, a spokesperson for the McDonald's corporation released a statement that read, "The safety of customers and employees is our top priority, and we take these claims seriously. We have been in touch with the customers involved and are continuing to investigate."
7 Action News has reached out to McDonald's again to ask about the results of their investigation. We're still awaiting a response.
And the parents said they have also not received any assurances that this won't happen again and they fear a child could be injured if procedures are not put into place to ensure no box cutter winds up in another Happy Meal.
"I still want answers from a month ago and I haven't gotten anything," said Paret.
Reaume added, "McDonald's is just very lucky that none of these children have gotten hurt."
"I just want to stress that I'm not letting it go," said Foster. "And I know the other moms are in agreement on that. We're going to take whatever action we need to ensure that no one is harmed."
All day Wednesday, McDonald's declined to say what was the result of any "investigating."
Then at 5:20 PM Wednesday, what we did receive was the following statement from Ginny Seyferth, McDonald’s of Michigan Spokesperson: "The health and safety of our customers remains our top priority. The restaurants involved were in immediate contact with the customer."
