Bradford mom says she found glass pipe inside secondhand stuffed animal

BRADFORD COUNTY, Fla. — A Florida mom says she found what appeared to be a glass pipe inside a stuffed animal she bought at a secondhand store.

Tara Mcree's youngest daughter, Hattie, is 1 year old. When she saw a Build-a-Bear rabbit at a secondhand store in Starke just like the one her oldest daughter had when she was little, she had to get it for her girls.

"I washed it, bleached it, dried it and then whenever I got it out of the dryer, I was about to hand it to my child, and I happened to turn it over," Mcree said.

She said she noticed a hole near the rabbit's ear but she didn't find the usual heart placed inside Build-a-Bears.

"There was a sharp glass tube. I didn't cut myself on it, thank God," she said.

Mcree said she asked her husband, a former deputy, what it was. "He says, ‘Tara, put that down immediately, that's a crack pipe,'" she said. "So we took a pair of scissors and went through and cut the entire back of the rabbit up, and that's when he found the other piece to it."

Mcree says they kept the rabbit far from their five children and called the store the next morning to warn them.

Action News Jax is not naming the shop because it's not under investigation.

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We went by the store Thursday and watched as an employee took all the stuffed animals off the shelves.

Mcree said it's a scary warning for families.

"Just to think she could've put, potentially put that in her mouth or fell on the glass, even," she said.

"Really check your kids' toys. You never know what could be inside, especially secondhand. You don't know where it's coming from."

Mcree says she doesn't want people to stop shopping at secondhand stores but she does want them to be more cautious.

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