Valued at HKD52,800 and discounted to HKD33,600, the 1.8m tall Teletubbies doll Laa Laa was found broken.
It all happened too fast. The father, Mr. Cheng, stepped out for a phone call and left his family in KKPlus the toy store in Mongkok, Hong Kong. When he came back, he found the art piece shattered already. “My son was motionless. He was staring down, looking at the toy,” shares Cheng in an radio interview. Staff confirmed that they saw Cheng's five-year-old son kicking the art sculpture, so Cheng had no choice but to pay for it.
Designer toy breaks
It was only last Sunday, May 22, when a video of his boy leaning lightly against the doll went viral that he realized that the toy store's staff might be wrong.
In the same article in Hong Kong Free Press, the father added that his son was stressed with regards to what happened. "He took a day off school today. Yesterday, he asked me three times why the doll was so terrifying.”
KKPlus released a statement on their Facebook page but deleted on Tuesday, May 24, 11:00 a.m. Part of the statement included “The company did not charge more than the selling price of the item," saying that the toy piece has been in the same spot since November and "had not brought any inconvenience to customers" but they would "learn from this experience to prevent similar incidents from happening again.” KKPlus' manager shared in an KH01 interview that they have removed over one-meter-tall toys as well.
KK Plus has also issued a full refund and an apology, according to South China Morning Post.