GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A protest broke out at a Grand Rapids gas station Tuesday evening after a mom claims she found pills in handmade candy bags.
Sara Chilton told FOX 17 that she was about to give the candy to her five-year-old daughter, when she checked the bags and found pills.
Community members called for action Tuesday evening, with more than a dozen people locking arms outside of the BP gas station on Martin Luther King Jr. Street and Eastern Avenue.
A group is protesting a Grand Rapids gas station. A mom claims that she found random pills in multiple handmade package candy bags here. pic.twitter.com/vDLv9yFmiX
— Matt Witkos Reporter (@matt_witkos) June 28, 2022
“I see the bags all the time, but never found anything, but in every bag, I found pills. It was like they put the candy at the bottom and they had pills in the middle and put candy on top to try and blend it in. All the bags were like that,” Chilton explained to FOX 17.
The store displays the individual bags. FOX 17 did go inside and look at the bags but did not see any pills.
Now, the Grand Rapids Police Department is investigating.
The department says the pills are a diabetic medication and, at this point, investigators believe it was an accident.
GRPD released a statement Tuesday night, which said the clerk was bagging up candy and selling it. While he was bagging the candy, he dropped his prescription medication and some of the pills ended up in the box of candy he was bagging. The clerk also told officers he thought he got all of the pills out, but he missed a few of them.
GRPD says the clerk had the bottle for the medication with his name on it, and officers confirmed the pills matched the prescription on the bottle.
Since the department believes this was accidental, it is not pursuing criminal charges at this time.
“I don’t know what they are because anything could have been in the bottle. They were just reading the label. I still don’t know what they are, but no pills should be mixed up,” said Chilton.
Kent County commissioner Robert Womack stood with the protesters Tuesday evening.
He told FOX 17 that he not only wants an investigation into Chilton’s accusations, but also into why the gas station is selling handmade bags of candy at all.
“We’re going to see if we can get the Kent County Health Department to look into why they are taking candy, mixing them and wrapping them themselves to see if they went through the inspections to be able to do that at a local gas station,” Womack added.
Tony Singh owns the gas station and also claims this was an accident.
He says it’s the first time he’s heard about this and, the employee who had only worked there for two months, was fired.
FOX 17 also reached out to the Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDARD), which will start an investigation into the gas station for selling the homemade candy bags.
MDARD told FOX 17 Wednesday that its inspectors are assisting GRPD in this open, ongoing investigation.
MDARD says inspectors were on scene Wednesday morning. The gas station is closed and MDARD says Singh is cooperating.
According to MDARD, repackaging bulk items into smaller packages is legal if labeled properly and meets the Michigan Food Law and Weights and Measures Law. That means mixed bags of candy must have a statement of identity, statement of the responsbile party, net weight, ingredients, allergen information and products must come from a source that complies with the law.
The department said Wednesday afternoon it will continue to monitor and followup.
