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Infant Accidentally Packaged as Doll
By Sam Zess October 23, 2006
COLEMAN, Ga.--Ten-month-old Kathy Morben surprised toy shoppers this week when she turned up in a box for the popular Baby LillyTM line of dolls.
Kathy, who has since been reunited with her mother, owes her brief stint on store shelves to unfair maternity-leave policies at the Baby LillyTM factory.
"They wouldn't let me take time off, so I had to bring her to work," said Mrs. Morben, who inserts plastic left arms in hollow little bodies. "I was a little behind and placed her on the assembly line so I could use both hands."
Perforations in the Baby LillyTM box--which allow the dolls' realistic cries and coos to entice buyers--enabled Kathy to breathe during shipping and display.
Mrs. Morben tracked Kathy down using her daughter's lot number and UPC barcode. The mother's cries, screams, and bodily struggle to recover the girl made Mrs. Morben indistinguishable from the other holiday shoppers. Another family purchased the girl before her mother could reach her.
But Kathy was immediately returned to the store, amid complaints of her "excessive realism."
Mrs. Morben reports that her daughter seems uninjured, and untraumatized.
"Sometimes I find her sleeping in the toy chest, but other than that she's fine," Morben said.
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