A MUM has been left terrified after a grown man starting trying to contact her son through a kids toy.
Kelly Media Enos, a gentle parenting pro and mum-of-two took to social media urging parents not to make her mistake.
She had purchased the toy for her eldest son, George, aged four, and has since got rid of it.
At first, the mum was lying in bed and could hear a grown man talking so decided to check the ring door bell.
George was asleep at the time, but she and her partner were left baffled by where the voices were coming from.
Please don’t make the same mistake that I have
Kelly Media Enos
“We could quite clearly hear somebody talking,” she explained.
“We were like, alright, maybe somebody just having, like, a conversation.
“Walked back from the pub or something, and they’re outside the front of our house having a chat.
“Looks on the ring doorbell, nobody there, looked on the ring doorbell inside our house, nothing there.”
Kelly then realised that she and George were playing with the walkie talkie set she had bought him and that one was still turned on.
The mum found out that the toy, a set of blue walkie talkies she had purchased from Amazon were where the man’s voice was coming from.
She continued: “What was coming from the walkie talkie was a fully grown man saying, ‘Hello? Are you there? Hello, mummy.'”
Kelly revealed that she was left terrified and instantly turned the toy off.
She said she then did some research and found anybody could get on the same frequency to talk through the walkie talkies.
“Please don’t make the same mistake that I have,” she told parents as she apologised for sharing a link to the toy in a previous post.
“Basically they aren’t a safe childs toy IMO. I’m so sorry again that I didn’t make myself more aware of the risks that come with them,” Kelly captioned the post.
“I hope you understand that if I’m using something with my own child you can trust that I believed it was safe.
“If this educates more people then I’m happy.”
The clip posted to Kelly’s TikTok account @kellymedinaenos has since gone viral with over 800k views and 46k likes.
Parents were quick to take to the comments thanking Kelly for her advice and shared their own stories of the kids toy.
One person wrote: “Happened to me with my little one as well! Grown man came through saying I’m under the bed! Absolutely terrified me, they instantly went in the bin!”
Another commented: “This happened with my daughters & we live next door to a police station, we kept getting all the police updates.”
“Oh wow this is so scary,” penned a third.
Meanwhile a fourth said: “As a kid, me and my sister had walkie talkies. at certain frequency we got through to staff at the local SPAR newsagents.”
What to watch out for when buying toys online
HERE are the British Toy and Hobby Association's top tips for buying toys online:
- Shop early. Don’t leave ourchases to the last minute rush which might leave you fewer options of where to buy from.
- Check out third-party sellers. Look for sellers you recognise and trust. Be cautious of retailers you don’t know and do your research checking reviews and where they’re based.
- Go for branded toys. Try and choose a branded toy as then you can compare it to the manufacturer’s own website to check it’s legit.
- Be careful of going for the cheapest price. If something looks too good to be true, it probably is.
- Check if there are any age restrictions. Make sure you give suitable toys to children based on their age.
- Check reviews carefully. Some reviews are fake so look carefully at the comments.
- Stay with children at first. When your child opens a toy for the first time, stay with them and check for faults, detachable small parts, access to stuffing and loose or accessible batteries or magnets.
“We brought these last year from Amazon!! and we had the exact same thing,” claimed a fifth.
Someone else added: “I brought the same ones two years ago and we smashed them up within hours of setting them up and playing with them I went downstairs and Noah was playing with them on my own and I could hear someone.”
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