A New York City woman says she found a note in her Saks Fifth Avenue bag claiming to be from a mistreated Chinese prisoner, DNAInfo.com reported.
"We are ill-treated and work like slaves for 13 hours every day producing these bags in bulk in the prison factory," the letter, first discovered in September 2012, reportedly said.
A leader from the Laogai Research Foundation, an advocacy group for these prisoners, said he believes the author of the letter took a risk, including death, in writing it, the website reported.
The website reported that it contacted the man who said he wrote the letter during a three-year stint at the prison in eastern China.
"I am just happy that someone heard my cry," the inmate reportedly said. The former inmate is living in Cameroon.
Hudson's Bay Company, which has a controlling stake in Saks, said the company could not determine the origin of the bag.
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