A child who crashed a supermarket trolley into a man’s leg has tested positive for Haribo.
The incident occurred when the child, 10-year-old Luke Micallef from Naxxar, was shopping with his parents at PAMA supermarket in Mosta.
When they got to the tinned foods aisle, Micallef took control of the trolley while his parents weren’t looking, before running down the aisle.
The child eventually came to a stop at the other end of the aisle, when he rammed the trolley into fellow shopper Simon Dimech, 32, from Rabat.
As a result of the crash, Dimech suffered a bruised left leg.
Supermarket security personnel, who at the time were telling a man he could not take his backpack in with him, were summoned to the scene of the incident. They promptly detained Micallef, before administering him a drug test.
As a result of the test, the child was found to have abnormally high levels of sugar in his bloodstream. A search of the trolley also yielded three empty bags of ‘share size’ Haribo Starmix.
Micallef was then hauled into the storeroom to appear before Supermarket Magistrate Donatella Mifsud Stafrace.
Lawyer Franco Debono, who happened to also be shopping at PAMA at the time, represented the young child. Debono argued that since Dimech was looking up reviews of tinned tuna brands on his phone at the time of the incident, he was not aware of his surroundings and therefore bore some responsibility for the accident. Furthermore, Micallef had burst into tears following the crash, which indicated that he was in fact the victim.
The Magistrate sentenced Micallef to one week of assisting people at the self-checkout machines. As compensation, Dimech received a free six-pack of water.
