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Police investigating after pins found in strawberries bought at Adelaide Hills supermarket

A pin found in a strawberry by Stirling woman Anne Lentakis.

A pin found in a strawberry by Stirling woman Anne Lentakis. Photo: Supplied

An Adelaide Hills woman has reported finding pins in several strawberries bought from a local supermarket, with police confirming they are now investigating.

Stirling woman Anne Lentakis said she bought a punnet of Queensland strawberries yesterday afternoon, and her 11-year-old son later started cutting them up for a snack.

“He cut one strawberry and found a pin deep inside the strawberry,” Ms Lentakis told ABC Radio Adelaide.

“He said to me, ‘Mum, I think there’s a pin in my strawberry’.”

Similar incidents occurred in Adelaide as recently as July, while a scare prompted by multiple instances of deliberate spiking spread across Australia two years ago.

Ms Lentakis said she called the store and the owner, and said the brand had been removed from the shelves.

Ms Lentakis said her other son, aged 8, then found more pins.

“He said, ‘Mum, I think there’s a hole in this one’, so we cut that one and there was another pin,” she said.

“We cut a third strawberry and there was another pin.

“At that stage, I called the store again and the older son said, ‘I think we better stop cutting them, Mum. The police might want to look at this’.”

SA Police are investigating the report and are meeting about the issue this morning, but have not yet released a statement about it.

The punnet of strawberries Ms Lentakis found pins in. Photo: Supplied

Ms Lentakis said the store owner was surprised and disappointed.

“I think there have been things put in place since this happened before with metal scanning, so that was a bit confusing to wonder how and why this could happen but [he was] very appreciative that I had called him,” she said.

“He had jumped on the phone and activated their procedures.”

The strawberry season has yet to start in the Adelaide Hills.

In July, Police Commissioner Grant Stevens vowed to “come down as hard as we possibly can” on whoever was responsible for putting needles in mandarins, strawberries, avocados and bread.

A thumbtack was reported to have been found in strawberries at a Foodland supermarket at Goolwa.

“We are taking this very seriously and we will dedicate resources to crush this stupidity as quickly as possible,” Mr Stevens said.

ABC

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