Needle Prick at Texas Kohl's Leaves Woman Terrified
A Texas woman said she was pricked by needles left in a pair of shorts.
July 17, 2009— -- A woman who says she was stuck by hypodermic needles stuffed into the pocket of a pair of shorts she was trying on in a Texas Kohl's is undergoing tests for disease as officials investigate.
The 47-year-old woman told worker's at Houston-area Kohl's that she had been trying on the shorts Thursday when she was pricked in the leg, according to Harris County Sheriff's Deputy Thomas Gilliland.
"We met with the store manager and they're going to handle it internally as far as a video tape ... see if they can find anything unusual," he told ABCNews.com
The woman's common-law husband told ABC's Houston affiliate KTRK that the syringes appeared to have been used, with dried blood on the needles. Now the woman, who hasn't been identified, is undergoing preventative treatment as well as testing, something that will continue over the next several months.
"There's no indication who left these there, you know, what their condition is," the husband, whose name is also being withheld, told KTRK. "You've got possible exposure to all kinds of communicable diseases."
"We take the safety of our customers and associates seriously, and continue to investigate the situation and will cooperate with the authorities accordingly," Vicki Shamion, Kohl's vice president of public relations, said in a statement.
Kohl's, which has 1,022 stores in 49 states, posted sales of $16.5 billion in 2007. An employee at the store where the woman was allegedly pricked told KTRK that employees canvassed the store after the woman complained to make sure there weren't syringes in any other garments.
"We're going through all the pants to make sure that everything checks out all right," the employee told the station. "We just want to be sure that the entire store is safe after this."
