Discount Store Recalls Prank Knives Turned Out to Be Real

Prank knife will make you popular at parties

The packaging promises the prank will be “an absolute hit at parties.” A YouTube video advertising the knife shows just how realistic it can be.

Unfortunately, it seems that realism has come too close to home after a customer at Tokyo’s Chuo Ward returned a Dokkiri Cutter after noticing that it didn’t have the semicircular indentation it was supposed to. Even more concerning was the fact the blade was razor sharp, not safe and blunt.

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Staff quickly determined that this was not some sort of prank on prank and that there were other Dokkiri Cutter packages in the store that housed real knives and not their joke counterparts.

It turns out somewhere along the distribution process real utility knives had been mistakenly put inside Dokkiri Cutter packaging and had entered into the store's inventory without being noticed. Daiso has now suspended sales of all Dokkiri Cutters across all of its 3,000 stores in Japan.

Voluntary recall issued by chain store

It has also issued a voluntary recall of the product to safely take back any other real blades that might be lurking out there. In the meantime, we can only hope that the mixup hasn’t caused the loss of too many fingers from its main consumers, intoxicated adults and curious children.

Daiso is a popular store throughout Asia and North America where all products are sold for 100 yen or less. It’s a staple shopping point for topping up common household supplies like toilet paper and kitchen essentials.

It isn't the first time that Daiso has been scrutinized over the sale of unsafe products. Earlier this year the chain store was fined $355,000 AUD by the Federal Court of Australia for selling thousands of products that did not meet Australian product safety standards.

Australia cracks down on sale of unsafe products

Daiso operates franchises in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia. An investigation last year by Consumer Affairs Victoria found that Daiso was selling more than 15,295 products that did not comply with Australian mandatory consumer safety standards and information standards.

These products ranged from projectile toys that posed risks to eyes and face, toys marketed at young children that had choking hazard potential and sunglasses without labelling. In addition to the fine, the company was ordered to compensate customers when they returned the non compliant goods as well as make the recall notices highly prominent in stores and on the company's social media sites.