Manufactured by the same people who makes Nutella and Ferrero Rocher, Kinder egg is perhaps one of the most popular treats for children today. It’s a chocolate-shaped egg inside which is a surprise toy.
Children across the board love it, and as a parent the last thing you expect to find inside the treat is the Class A drug methamphetamine, yet that’s exactly what a five-year-old boy in Ireland found.
“The youngster found the yellow plastic egg, which usually contains a toy, in a hedge while out playing with his eight-year-old brother in the Edenmore Road area, then handed it over to his father,” said a report by the Belfast Telegraph.
The father then contacted the police to have it tested, and the results identified the substance inside the plastic as methamphetamine, which could have caused devastating harm to the child had he ingested it.
Known as an extremely addictive stimulant, methamphetamine takes the form of a white, bitter-tasting crystalline powder which renders its user in a euphoric high. However, long term use of the drug causes brain damage.
“The contents of the bag, which was found inside a toy egg, is believed to be methamphetamine,” said PSNI Inspector Colin Shaw in a statement. “This incident is of the uppermost concern for all of us.”
According to Alan Robinson Limavady Democratic Unionist Party councillor, it was “by the grace of God” that the toy had been passed to the boy’s father, who had the good sense to alert the police.
“As a father of a child, I know how enticing Kinder eggs and their contents are to children,” said the councillor. “There would have been a devastating impact on any child that sampled that drug.”
Meanwhile, inspector Colin Shaw said that he doesn’t want the local community to just be finding random drugs on their streets.
“This incident just reminds us that criminals have no regard whatsoever for the safety of local residents,” he said, “and I am thankful that this child had the sense to speak to an adult about what he discovered.”
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