One woman complained of stomach pains and nausea after she took two caplets from one bottle, and a man notified local police after he discovered a missing shrink band and inner seal after opening the glued outer carton of the other bottle. According to local police, the woman doesn't recall whether the shrink band and inner seal of her package were missing. The case is unusual in that it involved two brands: Excedrin from Bristol-Myers Squibb, New York, NY, and Kmart's private-label brand American Fare, manufactured by Perrigo of Allegan, MI. Chalky white tablets containing what police called a "potentially dangerous controlled substance" were discovered in both bottles, leading police to suspect the tampering was done at the local level by either a disgruntled employee or customer. Aside from the secondary carton that police say must have been re-glued, police feel that the tampering was extremely amateurish since one package contained red caplets, a stark contrast from the white pills that were added. "The act itself was very immature," Wheeling deputy police chief Michael Hermes tells Packaging World. "And no attempt was made to make it look like a safety seal was on."
Police label Kmart tampering 'immature'
Reports of alleged tampering surfaced recently in what appears to be an isolated incident involving two different bottles of pain reliever. The bottles were purchased from a Kmart store outside Chicago in Wheeling, IL.
Mar 31st, 1997
