The Dollar Store has become a lifesaver for shoppers on a budget, but remember back in 2014 when they sold a cursed object targeted at little kids?
It was called the Evilstick and it was sold in the toy aisle just at eye level, a great position to feed the impulses of little boys and girls who wanted a magic pink wand. But what they got was a terrifying cursed object that was more pray than play.
Via Mental Floss: Mike Mozart, Flickr // CC BY 2.0 // Model photo courtesy of Butcher Ludwig
Back in 2014, just after Halloween, a Dayton, Ohio mother named Nicole Allen bought what looked like a cheap pink wand with a large silver inlaid lotus flower on top. It seemed harmless and for $1 it was probably worth appeasing a bored two-year-old while mom did her errands. Perhaps in her haste, the mother failed to realize that the cartoony-stylized font on the packaging read “Evilstick,” a bode that she would later regret not seeing before she bought it.
But you can’t blame her, who would have ever guessed such an unsuspicious-looking plaything would end up terrorizing a family?
“I’m outraged over it. I want to know how they think this is suitable for a child,” Allen later said in an interview.
Snopes.com
The dreadful secret was behind the foil-covered lotus flower which Allen’s son peeled away. It revealed a demon-like woman with large red eyes and large teeth sliting her wrist as blood poured down her arm. Allen said to make matters worse the scepter didn’t “send out wonderful music” as promised on the package, but emitted a cackling laugh. That’s enough to unsettle a full-grown adult, let alone a toddler.
When the news about the toy went viral the store owner Amar Moustafa was interviewed by local news outlet WHIO and said he wasn’t aware that the wand held such a horrible image, but blamed the mother for not inspecting the toy thoroughly before buying it.
The story subsequently blew up which meant more demand for it, but with such a limited supply people turned to Ebay where they paid upwards of $200 for what originally cost a buck.
It was later discovered that the image of the frightening woman in the wand was used without permission. It was an altered photo taken by horror photographer Butcher Ludwig that depicted one of his models as a vampire cutting her arm to feed on her own blood. The foreign company that manufactured the Evilstick appeared to have altered it, adding the oversized red eyes.
The original Evilstick has since gone on to cursed object infamy and they are pretty hard to find online. Searching “Evilstick” on eBay yields fragrant incense and pool cues. The real ones are probably hidden away in a collector’s stock somewhere waiting for their chance to scare again when they bring it out to sell at a toy convention.
*Title image is taken from Mental Floss.
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