Bad coating: Cuddly sheep becomes a creepy monster

Shock in the children's room: When Arnold P*. (38) wanted to collect the cuddly toys of his daughter Ellie (4) for the laundry, he was horrified. Cuddly sheep Irving, instead of looking out of friendly googly eyes, stared at him with white eyeballs without irises and pupils - a zombie sheep! Apparently, the black paint had peeled off over time, turning Irving into a monster.

"Horrible! Irving was in Ellie's bed all the time, the kid must have had nightmares!" said the visibly concerned father. Ellie's equally worried mother Irene (34) quickly regained her composure and investigated the causes of the drama. "They probably pretreated the plastic badly before painting, if at all. And guaranteed they tested the material with test inks instead of properly measuring contact angles. Irresponsible is what I call that!", the graduate in business administration draws her angry conclusion.

If insufficient pretreatment and surface testing are really the reason for the incident, it could cost the manufacturer Cheap Sheep dearly. Arnold P., himself a lawyer in the legal department of a large company, is considering a product liability lawsuit. There are precedents – in the aviation industry, for example, there have been compensation claims in the billions because of paint defects. "And what are a few airplanes against the soul of a child?" sums up the dedicated father.

Fortunately, little Ellie doesn't show any signs of shock. She doesn't understand all the excitement and wants to keep Irving: "I still love him just as much as before, he smells as cuddly as ever. The main thing is that he doesn't get washed!".

* Names changed by the editor