[ozzie]

I received this from a friend of mine and thought I would share it with all of you. Maybe it will help someone.

McDonalds, Chuck E Cheese, Discovery Zone... Some of you might not be parents, but you may have nieces, nephews, grandchildren or friends with children. This will pertain to you too. As I read the following, my heart sank. I urge each and every one of you to pass this on to as many people as you can. I cannot stress how important this is!

This is very disturbing news. In addition to the following true story...
One son lost his watch, and was very upset. We dug and dug in those balls, trying to find the watch.

Instead, we found vomit, food, feces, and other stuff I do not want to discuss. I went to the manager and raised hell. Come to find out, the ball pit is only cleaned out once a month. I have doubts that it is even done that often. My kids will never play in another ball pit. Now read this:

PRETTY SCARY!!

Hi. My name is Lauren Archer, my son Kevin and I lived in Midland,TN. On October 2nd, 1999 I took my only son to McDonald's for his 3rd birthday.

After he finished lunch, I allowed him to play in the ball pit. When he started whining later on, I asked him what was wrong, he pointed to the back of his pull-up and simply said "Mommy, it hurts." I couldn't find anything wrong with him at that time. I bathed him when we got home, and it was at that point when I found a welt on his left buttock. Upon investigating, it seemed as if there was something like a splinter under the welt. I made an appointment to see the doctor the next day, but soon
he started vomiting and shaking, then his eyes rolled back intohis
head.

From there, we went to the emergency room. He died later that night. It turned out that the welt on his buttock was the tip of a hypodermic needle that had broken off inside. The autopsy revealed that Kevin had died from a heroine overdose. The next week, the police removed the balls from the ball pit. There was rotten food, several hypodermic needles: some full, some used; knives, half-eaten candy, diapers, feces, and the stench of urine.

If a child is not safe in a child's play area then where? You can find the article on Kevin Archer in the October 10,1999 issue of the Midland Chronicle.

Please forward this to all loving mothers, fathers and anyone who loves and cares for children!

Don't think it's just McDonald's either or that this is something that just started. When my oldest son who is now 9 was small the area Burger King closed their play area for awhile for "remodeling" because in another town there had been an incident similar to the one described above that happen @ a Burger King.

A little boy had been playing in a ball pit & started complaining of his legs hurting. He later died too. He was found to have snake bites all over his legs & buttocks. When they cleaned the ball pit they found that there was a copperhead nest in the ball pit. He had suffered numerous bites from a very poisonous snake.

[h0kie]

Common forward. While they're not the cleanest places in most restaurants, most of the "facts" in this forward are false.

http://www.snopes.com/critters/snakes/ballpit.asp

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/parental/archer.asp

[Zen888]

Ball pits are unsanitary places to be avoid!

[Raynaadi]

Ah you beat me to snopes.com. I got this forward as well. I always look these things up so that I'm not living in undue fear. While ball pits may not be very clean, I was so relieved to find out there weren't really the dangers this "internet myth" wants us to believe. Ick.

[Rhapsody]

I personally know of two different people that have found feces and an used condom in these ball pits....... I "vote" NO to these ball pits and they have since been removed from all eating establishments in my town.

LoVe,
Rhapsody -