Horrifying baby-cam video shows IKEA bookcase toppling onto toddler twins
Harrowing baby-cam video captured the moment an IKEA bookcase tipped, despite being anchored, and toppled onto 2-year-old California twins who miraculously escaped injury, according to a report.
“I remember being so afraid of this happening. It felt like a very real thing that could happen to me,” Nicole Oka told USA Today in describing the chilling incident on June 3.
Oka and her husband were aware of a spate of incidents involving the Swedish furniture giant’s products — leading to the deaths of at least 10 children — so they followed the instructions and secured the BRIMNES bookcase to the wall, the paper reported.
The chilling footage shows the couple’s twins climbing on the bookcase, which tipped over after the anchoring brackets separated from the particleboard unit.
“My babies could have died,” Oka told USA Today. “I did everything right. I did everything I should have.”
The tall, slim unit — which has two drawers at the bottom and four shelves — is part of a line that includes three dressers that were included in a 2016 recall, USA Today reported.
Oka said her husband followed the instructions and used the two L-shaped brackets and screws provided by the company, which instructs customers to select their own wall fasteners.
She said he screwed one bracket into a wall stud and the other, which did not align with a stud, into the drywall — and that unit appeared to be secure until June 3.
The video captured 2-year-old Clara walking to the bookcase, pulling out the bottom drawer and climbing in. Her brother Dominic then joined her inside.
“Dominic, drawer, drawer,” she said before the unit crashed, prompting Oka to glance at the baby monitor in horror.
She and her husband rushed to get the bookcase off their kids, who were unharmed.
“I was so mad and I was instantly like, I have to tell somebody,” Oka said. “I have to find somebody who can hear this story.”
After putting her twins back to bed, Oka said, she checked another IKEA secured bookcase — from the Billy line — in her 4-year-old son’s bedroom. When she tugged at it, it too detached from the wall, she said.
“I’m so glad that I have this video. As horrible as it is to watch it, I know the outcome was that they were fine,” she said. “And your mind obviously is going to go to the kids that aren’t fine.”
IKEA spokeswoman Hanna Bengtsander told USA Today the company was aware of the incident and relieved that the kids were uninjured.
“We are currently reviewing the video involving the BRIMNES bookcase and need more time to get a better understanding of the details,” she said in a statement. “We cannot provide any additional comment at this time.”
The US Consumer Product Safety Commission also is investigating the mishap, a spokeswoman told the paper.
In 2016, IKEA recalled 17.3 million dressers, acknowledging that most of its bureaus did not meet the furniture industry’s stability test, which is meant to make sure that a dresser remains standing when pulled on by kids.
Nancy Cowles, executive director of the product safety nonprofit Kids in Danger, said she was aware of other cases in which anchored IKEA furniture fell over.
“It shows that anchoring is not the failsafe it’s been sold as,” she said in reaction to Oka’s video. “If the dresser is unstable, that’s not necessarily going to be enough.”