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Needle found inside ice cream freezer at Florida grocery store

WJAX began investigating after a photo on a community page showed a needle inside an ice cream freezer at a Jacksonville Winn-Dixie.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — WJAX began investigating after a photo on a community page showed a needle inside an ice cream freezer at a Jacksonville Winn-Dixie.

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WJAX contacted a local Winn-Dixie representative to confirm it was in the ice cream section at the store.

Store officials said the object was immediately removed after it was found and the area was thoroughly cleaned and sanitized.

"The safety of our customers is always our number one priority and we have taken this incident very seriously," Kaley Shaffer, spokeswoman with Southeastern Grocers, told WJAX. "After a thorough investigation, we determined that the item is one commonly used for medication. As part of our process, local law enforcement was contacted to recover the item. The area was thoroughly cleaned and all reasonable precautions were taken, including the removal of all product from the frozen foods section in which the item was found."

She said Winn-Dixie is now investigating and making sure there are no other related items in the store.

For Alexis Mauldin, a mother and shopper at the store, this is much more serious than a prank.

"(It's) scary and disgusting. That's bad," Mauldin said. "It kind of makes me mad because what if (there) was a disease on there and my child goes to put his hand in there and it sticks him?" she added.