LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The Olsen family takes a holistic approach to life.
Their home-based business sells organic body products and they work to avoid certain things like dyes and preservatives in their food and in what they put on their skin.
"We're really careful and cautious with the wipes we use or the lotions we use, or creams, or medicines, or anything like that. We're very careful to monitor the ingredients," said Nick Olsen.
That's what drew them to try WaterWipes, which markets itself as the "World's Purest Wipe" made with "99.9% water and a drop of fruit extract."
"I looked into all the options that they had at Target and WaterWipes were the only ones that didn't contain some sort of added this, added that, preservative this. So, I went with one box," Olsen said. "They were quite expensive, $25 for a six-pack."
Olsen says they used a couple of wipes on March 15, the day they bought them.
The ones on top of the package seemed fine. But then...
"I go to just change her diaper, like normal, middle of the night. It's dark, can't see anything, but I start smelling this weird smell coming from the WaterWipes package."
He didn't investigate until the morning.
When he realized something was very wrong, he began recording as he pulled one wipe after another out of package after package. Then, he posted the video on TikTok as a warning to others. It's racked up more than 3.1 million views.
"This is literally a brand new box," he says while pulling wipes out of a package.
"That's like makeup or mold or something," his partner, Brooklyn — the baby's mother —says as she looks on.
"It's like mold and makeup and pee and poop," Nick exclaimed.
"And we just used that on our poor little baby," Brooklyn said.
One-year-old Charlotte developed a red, itchy rash, so they took her to the doctor the next day.
Lab tests detected E. coli and doctors prescribed antibiotics for a urinary tract infection.
And while there's no way to know whether the infection was related to the wipes, that concern remains.
"After we used the wipes once or twice, she gets an infection. We've never had an issue before. I mean, one plus one. You know? That's all I can think," Nick said.
There are still a lot of questions about where in the process the contamination may have happened: from manufacturing to shipping to delivery at the Target store on Rainbow Blvd. and Spring Mountain Rd., where the family purchased the wipes.
The store gave them a full refund and the family sent the packaging and some of the contaminated wipes back to the manufacturer for testing.
None of them were expired but they did have a strange odor.
13 Investigates examined a stack of the wipes the family had kept in a Ziploc bag and found that they smelled spoiled—not like human waste but like something rotten in the refrigerator.
Target has not responded to our emails or returned phone calls requesting comment. Nick says the store manager told him they don't restock any returned baby products. However, we found the location also did not pull the remaining WaterWipes from store shelves.
Nick bought several more boxes. We opened them together and they all seemed to be fine.
13 Investigates also contacted WaterWipes. While the company would not provide an interview, Vice President Lindsay Martin sent the following statement:
"Our customers’ health and the safety of our products is our number one priority. We have taken this matter extremely seriously and as soon as we were made aware, we immediately launched an investigation. Our Quality Control team has undertaken microbiological and other tests on retained wipes from the same batches that this customer purchased with the wipes meeting all our safety and quality standards. We will also be working with independent experts to conduct testing on the wipes that the customer used, once we are in possession of these. We will keep the customer updated on the investigation and have been in regular contact since it was brought to our attention. Our investigations conducted so far have not found any issues or manufacturing production problems."
But WaterWipes did note some unusual issues with the box Nick bought.
"One side was completely taped," he explained. "The other side was sealed, like these other ones are, with glue."
WaterWipes wrote to 13 Investigates: "We don’t want to speculate about the possible cause until our investigation is complete. However, this is the first time we’ve ever seen this where different packs from various different production lines are all in the same box. We are at a loss to how this could have happened. Before our products leave our facilities, they are subject to robust and comprehensive checks to ensure they adhere to our high safety standards and it is impossible for packs from different production lines dates to be in the same box when it leaves a WaterWipes facility. To reiterate, from our investigations so far, we have found no issues or any manufacturing production problems."
"One of people's natural, skeptical responses is going to be that you guys did this. You sabotaged it because you're out for a payday," 13 Chief Investigator Darcy Spears said to Nick Olsen.
"Why would I want to save nasty wipes in the same house as my one-year-old daughter that could contract infections or whatever the heck was on those wipes? I wouldn't want that in my house," Nick told me. "Number two, I wouldn't spend the time or even be able to stuff them back in the packaging. And then, number three, we're not really pursuing any avenues of suing them or anything like that. I'm just in contact with them trying to figure out what the heck went wrong so that it doesn't happen to other people."
Other people who posted comments on TikTok say they've seen this kind of thing before and it's more likely mold than some kind of sabotage.
13 Investigates will stay in touch with WaterWipes until their investigation is complete and we'll let you know the results.