For one parent, the nightmare of finding sharp objects left in the playground their child was playing in has turned into reality.
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On Thursday morning, Haley Long visited the playground in the Glen Mia Estate, Bega with her son Izaiah, who is almost two.
She said when he was halfway down a slide she spotted a thumb tack, with the point facing upwards, at the bottom of the slide he was on.
She looked around the playground and found about 10 thumb tacks on other play equipment, including the other slide and the swings.
"Every thumb tack was sitting face up so if someone was to of sat on them they would go straight into their skin," Ms Long said.
"At that point I left and went straight to the police station."
Her son had caught a thumb tack in his pants at the top of the slide, but luckily he was not injured as it was just hanging onto the side of his clothing.
"It made me feel sick, because what sort of person would do such a thing to a kid?" she said.
She said it meant "a supposed to be safe place was not so safe anymore" and the act of leaving the thumb tacks there was disappointing.
She has shared the experience on social media, where many people said they were outraged to hear the thumb tacks had been left somewhere they could injure some of the most vulnerable in the community.
"This is unforgivable," one person wrote.
Ms Long was unsure about what could be done to prevent incidents like this from happening again, but said a few people on social media had said there needed to be cameras at the playground.
"That is maybe going too far, but if it's going to help stop and especially catch the idiots doing stupid things like that, than yes I think its a great idea," she said.
She said when she told police about the thumb tacks they told her they would notify Bega Valley Shire Council.
A council spokesperson said council's Town Team had not had any official reports of the incident, just word of mouth.
"As a result a crew was deployed to check and remove any dangerous items," the spokesperson said.
"All town crews have been notified to be on the lookout for similar occurrences."
NSW Police were contacted for comment, but did not respond by time of publication.