7-Eleven Owner In New Jersey Sold Homemade Hand Sanitizer That Burned Four Children

An opportunistic business owner looking to make a buck in New Jersey has now been summonsed by New Jersey officials for endangering the welfare of children and deceptive business practices.

Manisha Bharade, who owns a 7-Eleven store in Bergen County, NJ was charged after mixing foaming sanitizer not intended for resale with water and packaging the mixture in small bottles she sold, according to the NY Post. 

New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal commented: “Let me be perfectly clear: If you try to take advantage of our residents during a public health emergency, we will hold you accountable. Retailers who try to make a quick buck by exploiting others will face civil and criminal consequences.”

The burning was caused by an apparent chemical reaction from the homemade mixture and it left four young boys, including three 10 year olds and an 11 year old, burned on Monday. Police visited the 7-11 after photos of the products were posted to social media along with photos of one boy who had burns on his arm and leg. 

One 10 year old victim is expected to make a full recovery after being released from the hospital, while the three others were less severely burning. 14 total bottles were sold to customers, five of which have been turned over to police. Tests are being done to determine the chemical makeup of the mixture. 

Police don’t believe the owner tried to hurt anyone intentionally. In fact, she wasn’t really even price gouging either, as you’d expect, selling the bottles for $2.50 each. 

One law enforcement official said: “She wasn’t trying to make a lot of money and obviously didn’t mean to hurt anybody. But she’s no chemist.”

Lieutenant John DeVoe said: “While further investigation is underway, our first priority is to make the public aware that they should not use this item if they purchased it at the River Vale 7-Eleven. As far as we know, this issue is limited to the River Vale store at this time. From the information that we received, approximately one dozen of the bottles were sold to customers today.”

He concluded: “I think that the parents need to be diligent to make sure that we’re using only products that are sanctioned and sold under a consumer product. The last thing we want to do is to start buying into panic and creating our own type of sanitizers from compounds that we don’t know what they contain. That’s when the danger occurs. That’s when the compounds and mix and have a negative reaction, which is likely what occurred in this scenario.”

ABC New York reported on the incident from the store, located in River Vale, NJ;