Child's walkie-talkie intercepts truckers dirty talk

A West Virginia mother is seeking the recall of a popular walkie-talkie - a form of two-way radio - after her three-year-old's toy apparently intercepted a profanity-laced conversation between truckers about drugs and strip clubs.

Deborah Pancaro, 34, of Huntington, said she contacted manufacturer Fisher-Price after she heard a conversation in which a man said "10-4" and other things that led her to believe the device was relaying a CB radio conversation. "10-4" is radio code for "message understood."

"They said we should go smoke some weed, and were talking about being in a strip bar, some really explicit things," Pancaro said yesterday.



The walkie-talkie is sold exclusively at Wal-Mart and allows children to role-play animal rescues.

The walkie-talkie is supposed to have a range of about 6m, but Pancaro said she heard one of the voices say he was driving on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, about 442km north of Huntington.

Fisher-Price apologised for Pancaro's "disappointing experience" and has made two unsuccessful attempts to contact her. With a limited number of operating frequencies available for radio-type walkie-talkies, she said they occasionally will pick up transmissions from other products.