Plea for help from Chinese labor camp worker paid $1.61 per MONTH found stuffed in Oregon woman's Halloween decorations from Kmart



Oregon mother Julie Keith expected to find Styrofoam headstones in the graveyard kit she bought at Kmart for Halloween.

What she didn't expect was a desperate plea for help from one of the Chinese laborers forced to make the holiday decorations in brutal conditions.



The 42-year-old charity worker from Portland discovered the chilling letter hidden between the two novelty headstones when she opened the kit in October.



Plea for help: The letter, pictured, came in a box of Halloween decorations purchased in Oregon

'Sir: If you occasionally buy this product, please kindly resend this letter to the World Human Right Organization,' the unsigned note, that was folded into eighths, read.



'Thousands people here who are under the persicution [sic] of the Chinese Communist Party Government will thank and remember you forever.'



The letter's author said the Halloween product was made in Masanjia Labor Camp in Shenyang, China, where laborers are forced to work for 15 hours a day without time off on the weekends and holidays.



'Otherwise, they will suffer torturement, beat and rude remark. [sic] Nearly no payment,' they wrote in choppy English accompanied by Chinese characters.



The plea said workers at the labor camp make only 10 yuan per month - the equivalent to $1.61.

The China director at Human Rights Watch, Sophie Richardson, told The Oregonian that the origin or authenticity of the letter couldn't be confirmed.



Hidden: The letter was folded into eighths and hidden amongst the the Styrofoam headstones in the Totally Ghoul product, pictured

'We're in no position to confirm the veracity or origin of this,' she said. 'I think it is fair to say the conditions described in the letter certainly conform to what we know about conditions in re-education through labor camps.'

China's re-education through labor is a system of punishment that allows for detention without trial.

Masanjia labor camp is located in the industrialized capital of the Liaoning Province in northeast China.

'If this thing is the real deal, that's somebody saying please help me, please know about me, please react,' Richardson told The Oregonian. 'That's our job.'

Keith certainly thinks it is genuine.



She said she analyzed the product packaging and showed it to a Chinese co-worker at the Portland Goodwill store, where she is a donations manager, and they thought it looked authentic.



'I fully believe it is real,' she told Fox News , describing how the headstones where the letter was found were sealed together and the box was closed with tape.



'It had to [have] come from where they said.'



The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations is looking into the note. Keith said she had handed over the box of decorations and the letter to ICE agents to help in the investigation.

Response: Sears Holdings Corporation, which owns Kmart, said in a statement that it was investigating the matter after the product was sold at one of its Oregon stores

Keith actually purchased the box of decorations more than a year ago and only decided to pull them out this year because her five-year-old daughter was having a pre-Halloween birthday party.



She said at one point she considered donating the unopened $29.99 Kmart graveyard kit. But she opened it and found the letter, which had travelled some 5,000 miles over the Pacific Ocean to get to her home.

Keith's first instinct was to turn to Facebook to ask her friends for tips on what to do and to spread the message.

LETTER PLEADS FOR HELP

Sir: If you occasionally buy this product, please kindly resend this letter to the World Human Right Organization. Thousands people here who are under the persicution [sic] of the Chinese Communist Party Government will thank and remember you forever.

This product produced by Unit 8, Department 2, Mashanjla Labour Camp, Shen Young, Liaoning, China. People who work here have to work 15 hours a day without Saturday (or) Sunday break and any holidays, otherwise they will suffer torturement [sic], beat and rude remark, nearly no payment (10 Yuan/one month). People who work here suffer punishment 1-3 years averagelly [sic], but without court sentence. Many of them are Falun Gong practitioners who are totally innocent people. Only because they have different believe [sic] to the CCPG, they often suffer more punishment than others.

'I found this in a box of Halloween decorations,' she typed beneath a photo of the letter. The post quickly prompted a flurry of responses.



'I'm sure that person feared for his/her life to include that letter in the products, but it was a chance they were obviously willing to take,' one friend wrote, according to The Oregonian. 'We take our freedom for granted!'

'What's weird to me is someone is actually thinking about, and praying something comes of this... every day of their life since they sent it out,' another wrote. 'Makes me sad this even happens.'



Sears Holdings Corporation, which owns Kmart, said in a statement that it was also investigating the matter.



'Sears Holdings has a Global Compliance Program which helps to ensure that vendors and factories producing merchandise for our company adhere to specific Program Requirements, and all local laws pertaining to employment standards and workplace practices,' the company said.

