The day after the 14th syringe was linked to a Bartow County Walmart, a DeKalb County mother said she found a syringe inside the pocket of jogging pants she bought for her 4-year-old daughter.
Ashley King, of Stone Mountain, told police Tuesday she bought the pants at The Athlete's Foot on Wesley Chapel Road on Christmas Eve, according to the police report obtained by the AJC. King said they were a Christmas gift.
"She wore them yesterday for the first time," King told the AJC Wednesday.
When she was changing her daughter's clothes, she found the syringe in a pocket, King said. The syringe had a red cap on the needle, and neither King nor her daughter were injured.
"I’m just glad I found it before she did," King said.
King said she called police because she's followed media reports in recent weeks regarding syringes found in clothing items at a Bartow County Walmart. She said the store owner was very apologetic.
"It wasn’t the store," King said. "It was just somebody wanting to be spiteful."
DeKalb County police do not believe the latest syringe is related to those found in Bartow.
"This case appears to be an isolated incident," Lt. A.B. Catlin with DeKalb police said in a statement. "However we are aware of the other cases outside of our jurisdiction and take this case very seriously. The case is currently under investigation by our criminal investigations division."
Store manager Damien Hughes told the AJC he would review surveillance footage with police.
The Cartersville Walmart, about 50 miles from the Wesley Chapel Road store, has been the subject of an investigation for several weeks after numerous syringes were found in clothing items.
In the most recent incident Monday, a woman called police to her home after allegedly finding a syringe in her Walmart shopping bag, Sgt. Jonathan Rogers with the Bartow County Sheriff's Office told the AJC.
"We are still investigating this incident and the syringe has been taken into evidence," Rogers said in a statement.
Monday's incident is the 14th time a syringe has been found at the Cartersville store since the week of Thanksgiving. In one of the first incidents reported, Patricia Headrick's finger was pricked as she reached into a boxed bra on Black Friday.
Headrick took a medicine after the incident to hopefully prevent her body from contracting a disease from the syringe's needle, but said she must wait several months for further blood testing.
"I'm just waiting game," Headrick said in November. "I'm scared to death. I don't know what's going to happen."
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. spokeswoman Dianna Gee has said company officials believe that the syringe scare is isolated to its Cartersville store.
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