Before they could make it into Santa's sack, shipments of children's toys from China were seized on Oct. 28 and Oct. 29 by Consumer Product Safety Commission investigators and officials from Customs and Border Protection, after the toys in question were found to contain dangerous levels of lead.
CPSC reported the potential danger of the toys to the CBP after determining the toys contained unacceptable levels of lead and were also potential choking hazards, both of which are violations to the Federal Hazardous Substances Act.
In a statement released Thursday, Robert E. Perez, the CBP's New York director of operations said, “CBP, working very closely with our partners at CPSC, were able to protect the American public from these imported toys that could have potentially caused serious health and safety issues," New Jersey Today reports.
Over the course of two days, officials at the Port Authority in New York and New Jersey seized multiple shipments, amounting to 2,308 toys, which included baby dolls, cosmetic sets, fire trucks and tractors.
The toys, had they not been intercepted, likely would have graced the shelves of various toy stores in time for the holiday shopping season.
The CBP valued the total cost of the toys at $11,313.
Correction: A previous version of this story listed Border Patrol officials as the interceptors of the packages. It was officials with Customs and Border Protection who collected the lead toys.
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