
Police are investigating the release of bedbugs in a US Walmart after staff found two containers of the insects hidden inside the store.
A manager at the supermarket in Pennsylvania found the bedbugs last week in a pill bottle inside a coat for sale.
Investigators believe the blood-sucking parasites were left at the shop in Edinboro deliberately.
Walmart says there is no evidence of an infestation at the store.
No suspects have been identified so far in the investigation, state trooper Cindy Schick told the BBC.
Police have not yet established a motive for the release of the insects at the Walmart, about 90 miles (145km) north-east of Cleveland.
The bedbugs were discovered by a Walmart manager on 2 January in a sealed pill bottle hidden inside a boy’s jacket in the store’s clothing department.
A health safety company was called to the store and confirmed the insects were bedbugs. The pest controller then found more bedbugs crawling around a men’s fitting room.
On Saturday, two days after the bugs were first discovered, a second closed pill bottle containing dead bugs was found in the men’s clothing department.
A spokeswoman for the retail giant told the BBC that Walmart was co-operating with the police investigation.