Danger! Crocs on the Escalator!

At rail stations, department stores and shopping malls from Washington to Tokyo, kids wearing Crocs shoes or similar footwear are getting their toes caught in escalators with painful and occasionally bloody results. The accidents have become so commonplace that the Washington Metro has posted ads—featuring a crocodile—calling for caution on its escalators, the AP reports.

The soft, flexible shoes have a tendency to get caught in the "teeth" at the top or bottom of an escalator where the step disappears from view. "I came home and typed in 'Croc' and 'escalator' [into my computer] and all these stories came up," said the mother of one young victim. "If I had known, those would never have been worn." (More Crocs stories.)