A mother is speaking out after finding a pedophile-linked symbol on her child’s toy.
Nicole O’Kelly had taken her children to the Tampa Bay, Florida, Monster Jam show when her son decided to buy his 2-year-old sister a pink, plush monster truck, reports WHEC.
“I actually thought it was cute because it was pink,” recalls O’Kelly. “I was like ‘Oh, they actually have a pink toy for a girl, that’s really cool.’”
However, upon returning home, O’Kelly’s older daughter immediately noticed the toy had a family symbol: a double heart emblem she’d seen on the TV show “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.”
After doing a bit of research, O’Kelly was horrified to learn the heart’s double meaning. It turned out to be a symbol pedophiles use to represent a sexual relationship between an adult and female minor, an FBI bulletin published by WikiLeaks reveals.
“Pedophilia symbols on jewelry, coins, Web sites, and other effects are indicative of advertisement methods used by child sexual predators to promote their cause,” the document reads.
“When I see that heart inside the heart, it’s a pedophile,” agrees Anna Potter, the associate executive director of The Bivona Child Advocacy Center, HuffPost reports. “It’s that underground culture that they use to communicate.”
“It could mean criminal behavior,” Potter added, reports Syracuse.com.
The disgusted O’Kelly quickly went into action.
“Immediately, I went into momma bear mode,” she said, WFLA reports. “I was angry. I wanted to call and text everybody. I wanted answers.”
“I’m absolutely sick,” she added. “I bought this for my 2-year-old little girl. This is for little girls, especially at a predominately male event.”
O’Kelly reached out to Feld Entertainment, the company that runs the Monster Jam. They were clueless as to the symbol’s double-meaning and decided to pull the toy while offering full refunds to anybody who bought it.
