Many of us find mysteries to be perplexing but this is an international mystery that is quite unusual. It happened when a mother, Nicole Perez, purchased a pair of girls underwear for her daughter and when opening it, found a note that read “Help me! Plz.” Now a company in New York is looking into the matter. They are connected to the famous designer, Issac Mizrahi.
Perez purchased the Tinkerbell underwear for her daughter recently at a mom to mom sale. Although she thought it was a good bargain, she wasn’t bargaining on finding a note inside!
The package was manufactured by Handcraft Manufacturing Corporation in New York. The outside was labeled “made in the Philippines.”
“I was terrified. I just felt like everything just dropped to my stomach,” Perez said.
Rather than just leaving the situation go, Nicole decided to get involved. She emailed the manufacturer directly and they replied with an apology and offered to send a new pack of underwear. She couldn’t help but feel, however, that someone, perhaps a factory worker, was reaching out for help by inserting the desperate message into the package.
Perez attempted to contact the number on the package, but it did not work. The president of the Philippine American Cultural Center of Michigan, Rebecca Tungol, said it was common for many people in the Philippines to use prepaid cell phones. The fact that it is a prepaid phone makes it untraceable.
This is not the first time that notes asking for help have been found inside packages. In Oregon, a woman found a similar note inside a package of Hanes boxers. That note was written in Vietnamese.
7 Action News looked into the matter further and they got a response from the president of Handcraft Manufacturing. He did confirm that the note was written by a factory worker. He also stated that the company undergoes auditing by its licensors and retailers continually to ensure that labor laws are adhered to in their factories.
As for the underwear purchased by Perez with the note, she will be sending it to the company so that the matter can be investigated. She is also now more aware of the items she purchases.
(Images: IJReview)
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