Digital thermometer explodes inside Ypsilanti family's kitchen drawer

YPSILANTI, Mich. (WJBK) - An Ypsilanti family whose digital thermometer exploded inside a kitchen drawer is wondering if it's happened to anyone else.

Last Thursday, when Randy DesJardin, his wife, Julie, and the couple's two boys, Aiden and Mason, were all sleeping, Randy says he heard a loud noise inside the house.

"It sounded like a muffled bang, like something fell off shelf," Randy said.

The couple says they never saw any damage, but a few days later they say they could not believe what they found.

"A couple days later my son had some allergies so we went into drawer to get a syringe and we found the bang - it was a thermometer we purchased from CVS. There was shrapnel from the battery. It was a mess," Randy said.

Upset, Randy says he started thinking about all the dangers that could have happened to his little boys.

"As the day went on got more angry thinking about all the "what ifs"? What if I had been taking my son's temperature by his eyes and it blew up and the metal or the acid from the battery got in his eyes?" 

Julie says after they purchased the item six months ago for about $30, they've had very little problems.

"There was a few times where you'd get an inaccurate reading but it never was hot in my hand, never gave any indication that there was anything wrong with it," she said.

The couple says they reached out to the store's corporate office, but they haven't heard back. They're not sure if will file a lawsuit against any party at this time. They say they're speaking out to prevent this from happening to someone else.

So the couple contacted the Fox 2 Problem Solvers for help. We reached out to the company and were told:

"CVS Pharmacy's store brands are designed to maximize quality and assure the products we offer are safe, work as intended comply with regulations and satisfy customers.  We have not received any similar complaints related to this product. We will contact the consumer so we can look into this isolated occurrence."

As for now, the couple says if the store offers a replacement product for this item their response would simply be:

"Absolutely not."