As a plague of needles being placed in Australian strawberries appears to have crossed the Tasman, with an Auckland supermarket the latest to discover compromised produce, a Kiwi criminologist says that it was inevitable that copycats would eventually show themselves.
With last night's news that a needle was found in a punnet of strawberries was purchased from an Auckland Countdown supermarket , the Choice brand has been removed from shelves.
Appearing on TVNZ 1's Breakfast this morning, criminologist Greg Newbold compared the work of the apparent copycats to that of deviant pyromaniacs.
The Choice brand strawberries came from Australia, and have since been pulled from shelves.
"I think it's people who are fundamentally bored, and haven't got much important in their lives," he said.
"It makes them feel important, that they've created a national scandal, a national panic.
"They'll get some enjoyment out of that, they've got pretty empty lives themselves."
Mr Newbold also detailed ways to combat alleged copycats, saying is was important not to give them any credence whatsoever.
Countdown says the strawberries came from Western Australia.
"If it was me, I'd play it down."
"I wouldn't withdraw those strawberries from the shelves at all, I'd just put a sign up saying 'be careful when you bite these strawberries, there's a one in a million chance there could be a needle in it.
"If you beat it up, you're just throwing petrol on the fire."
Countdown last week announced it had halted imports of Australian strawberries to NZ for the season, while competitor Foodstuffs also ceased shipping them to its stores.
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