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Ikea stops selling popular dresser after 3 toddlers die; offers full refunds

By Allen Cone
Ikea has stopped selling its Malm series of dressers and chests, including this six-drawer dresser, after three young children were killed in separate incidents when Malm dressers and chests fell on them. Photo courtesy Consumer Product Safety Commission
Ikea has stopped selling its Malm series of dressers and chests, including this six-drawer dresser, after three young children were killed in separate incidents when Malm dressers and chests fell on them. Photo courtesy Consumer Product Safety Commission

LOS ANGELES, June 28 (UPI) -- Ikea has stopped selling some of its most popular dressers, saying they can easily tip over on small children, and is offering full refunds to millions of people who've bought them.

The largest furniture retailer in the world is no longer selling the three-, four- and six-drawer Malm dressers and chests, saying they "could be a danger" after three children died, Ikea USA president Lars Peterson told NBC News.

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Customers are eligible for a free repair kit to anchor the furniture to a wall or they can return the product for a refund. Ikea will send a crew to install wall anchors upon request. Ikea's recall line is (888) 966-4532.

"Please take them out of the room," Peterson said.

Last July, Ikea launched an "anchor" campaign in conjunction with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in which 300,000 kits were sent out.

In April, the company issued a safety notice warning of the "tip-over hazard."

"It is clear that there are still unsecured products in customers' homes," the statement says. "We believe that taking further action is the right thing to do."

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The fatalities included 2-year-old Curren Collas of West Chester, Penn.

Curren's mother, Jackie Collas, started a blog on Facebook called, Heaven Has a Hero. Collas said she entered Curren's room in February 2014 to dress the toddler for breakfast.

"As soon as I opened the door I knew something was wrong," she wrote on the blog. "The dresser was completely flipped over. Then I saw that his body was trapped underneath the dresser.

The dresser, Collas said, was not anchored to the wall.

Another child, 2-year-old Camden Ellis, died in 2014 and 22-month-old Theodore McGee was killed in February.

Alan Feldman, an attorney representing the families of all three toddlers, said in a statement reported by NBC: "We applaud the CPSC for taking a tough stand in support of consumer product safety by demanding that IKEA take concrete action to get these defective dressers off the market, or at least to make sure that whenever possible, the dressers are secured to a wall. It should not have taken repeated injuries and deaths over many years before IKEA finally responded to the potential hazard it placed in millions of American homes."

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