Most shoppers don't think twice before grasping a shopping cart's handle to push it through the aisles. Some gently disinfect the area with an antibacterial wipe as a precaution against illness, and that simple act may have saved Nicolas from a horrific injury.
According to FOX40, Nicolas was at a Marysville Wal-Mart in Yuba County in December 2015 — wiping down the area where her hands would have been — when she discovered a razor blade wedged in the plastic portion of the underside of the handle. She tells reporters, "The corner nicked me right there. Thank goodness I didn't get cut or anything. I stopped in time."
To make matters even more alarming, when Nicolas informed a sales associate of the errant razor blade, she learned that this was not an isolated incident. Nicolas recounts, "I handed it to her, and she threw it away, I asked her, 'Is this a thing?' And she said 'Ya, it is a thing.' " In fact, FOX40 reports that this is such a common occurrence that workers are regularly instructed to search for razor blades in shopping cart handles, taking appropriate safety measures such as wearing gloves while doing so.
Ashlie Walker, another Wal-Mart shopper and mother to 2-year-old Ryan, has pledged to vigilant about this threat, especially considering that her toddler always sits in the cart.
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The Marysville Wal-Mart is not the only institution to have experienced this terrifying threat to shoppers' safety. KRQE reports that two Wal-Mart shoppers were injured in Roswell, N.M., in 2014, and The Bismarck Tribune reports a narrowly-avoided injury for another Wal-Mart shopper in June 2015.
Not only do these concealed razor blades pose a severe cutting hazard, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns of a host of diseases transmitted through the blood, including sepsis, hepatitis, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).