Pennsylvania State Police are investigating after bed bugs were released in a Walmart changing room.
A manager at the Walmart store in Washington Township told police a closed pill bottle containing live bugs was found by store staff in a boy’s jacket that was for sale.
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Walmart disposed of the jacket and pill bottle without contacting authorities, Pennsylvania State Police said in a news release.
An employee from Ecolab, a health safety company, visited the store Friday and found bugs that were later identified as bed bugs, crawling around in the men’s fitting room.
A second closed pill bottle was found Saturday by a store associate on the floor in the men’s department. It contained several dead bugs. Walmart called police afterward to report the incident.
A State Police trooper responded to the scene and collected the bottle for fingerprinting. The store’s loss prevention team is reviewing surveillance video from the establishment.
Walmart reached out to other stores in the area and verified that this is an isolated incident, police said.
Bedbugs are small parasitic insects that feed on the blood of people and animals as they sleep, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
They are reddish-brown in color, wingless, and can measure from 1 millimeter to 7 millimeters, or about the size of Lincoln’s head on a penny, and can live several months without a blood meal, the CDC said. The bugs do not spread disease but they can cause itching, scratching and loss of sleep.
