A six-year-old boy has spent his ‘last day at school in hospital’ after a Coles anti-theft gate left him with a nasty cut.
Laura Jeacock was at her local Coles in Lara, near Geelong, south-west Melbourne, with her four children on Wednesday when she heard panic at the self-checkout exit.
The mother rushed over and found her son Kenzie bleeding after being cut near the corner of the glass doors.
Kenzie had run to the security gates when they closed without warning, causing his eye to open.
A local customer rushed to the boy’s aid and helped keep pressure on the wound as Coles staff reportedly watched the chaos unfold.
His mother has spoken out to warn other parents of the danger.
‘[This happening] a week before Christmas is not ideal. Spending his last day of school in hospital isn’t fun either… The doctors had to check there was no glass in the cut before gluing it together,” Ms Jeacock said. Yahoo News.
‘It was quite shocking, the employee who was supposedly medically trained had to Google it [what to do].’
Kenzie Jeacock was injured (pictured) by a smart security gate at Coles in Lara on Wednesday
Coles rolled out the anti-theft gates across Australia last year in response to an increase in shoplifting
The security gates are designed to open ‘automatically’ for customers after they have paid for their items.
Ms Jeacock claimed a Coles employee told her there was no sensor in the gates, meaning there was ‘nothing to prevent them from closing’.
The supermarket chain has now disputed the mother’s claim.
A spokesperson said the gates are ‘designed and tested to meet global and Australian standards and have built-in sensors to detect nearby objects’.
“With this incident, we have fully investigated and can confirm that the gates were functioning correctly, but the boy’s speed prevented the gates from opening in time,” they said.
A store manager called Mrs Jeacock on Thursday to check on Kenzie and to reassure the mother “someone had come to look at the gates” after they viewed the CCTV footage.
Woolworths and Coles began rolling out the new security measure late last year in response to an increase in shoplifting.
The gates came under fire earlier this year after a wheelchair-bound customer was ‘crushed’ by them.
A Coles spokesperson said the gates are ‘designed and tested to meet global and Australian standards and have built-in sensors to detect nearby objects’
‘Halfway through the gate slammed shut in front of me. Hit my arms and stop my wheelchair,” they wrote on Reddit.
‘When I squeaked away, it opened after a second and I pushed through. Yes, it hurt. Yes, it drove me crazy. No, I’m not injured. No, I don’t think it damaged my wheelchair. No, I didn’t shoplift.’
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Coles for further comment.