by Isolde Walters
This is the shocking moment a mum discovered a dead mouse sewn into her daughter’s Asda school skirt.
Natalie Kirkwood, 31, grew increasingly worried about the pungent odour coming from her seven-year-old daughter Sofia’s skirt.
She inspected the grey skirt pleats and realised one of them appeared to be stuffed.
Natalie and partner Stuart, 34, cut it open and to her horror discovered a decomposing mouse.
The mum-of-two said: “I felt disgusted when I found the rotting mouse inside the skirt.
“My daughter has worn that skirt with a decomposing mouse sewn inside it on numerous occasions.
“What if it made her ill?”
Natalie, a designer and former dressmaker, bought the age six skirt from an Asda store in her hometown of Dunstable, Beds in November.
She said: “Sofia has several skirts but she wore this one a number of times and never said anything.
“It was only when I was going through her clothes and wardrobe two weeks ago that I noticed the pungent smell.
“I decided to wash it separately but it still smelled awful.
“I wondered whether she had stuffed some things in her pocket and that’s when I noticed the pleat which appeared to be full.
“I used to be a dressmaker so I know the makeup of a garment – the only way we could access it was by cutting open the pleat.
“We decided to video it in case we needed to get in touch with Asda and they wanted evidence.”
Natalie and partner Stuart, a plasterer, cut open the skirt on February 18 and “were horrified to see a dead mouse nestled in the pleat”.
The next day Natalie immediately called Asda to complain who advised her to keep the dead mouse as evidence.
She said: “They have not been at all useful. They told me to keep the skirt and the dead mouse and take it into the store. But I explained that I didn’t want it stinking up my car.
“They said they would send a driver to pick it up but nobody has come yet. So the skirt and the dead mouse are still in a bag by my back door. It really is gross.”
An Asda spokesperson said: “We have begun a thorough investigation into how the mouse got into a skirt that was manufactured last summer.”
