Halloween candy tampering -- an urban legend?

[Tonio]

http://www.livescience.com/othernews/051025_halloween_candy.html

Each year, police and medical centers across the country follow another ritual, X-raying candy to check for razors, needles, or other objects that might have been placed there to hurt or kill innocent children... Yet year after year, few if any sinister foreign objects are found. This scary tale is essentially an urban legend...

Tthere have been only two confirmed cases of children being killed by poisoned Halloween candy, and in both cases the children were killed not in a random act by strangers but intentional murder by one of their parents...

There have been a few instances of candy tampering over the years—and in most cases the "victim" turned out to be the culprit, children doing it as a prank or to draw attention.

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/poison/halloween.asp

[font=Trebuchet MS,Bookman Old Style,Arial]Claim: Police have documented cases of madmen randomly distributing poisoned goodies to the little tykes who come calling on Halloween.

<noindex> Status: False. </noindex>

<!-- Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2005]

<TABLE WIDTH=90% ALIGN=CENTER BORDER=0 BGCOLOR=#000000><TR><TD BGCOLOR=#EAF2E5>
</TD></TR></TABLE>
--> Origins: [/font][font=Trebuchet MS,Bookman Old Style,Arial] It's a sadness that a holiday so thoroughly and greedily enjoyed by kids is being sanitized out of existence in the name of safety. Sadder still is there appears to be little reason for it.

Though I've yet to find evidence of a genuine Halloween poisoning, I have uncovered a few isolated incidents initially reported as random poisonings that, upon further investigation, turned out to be something else. [/font]

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/mayhem/needles.asp

[font=Trebuchet MS,Bookman Old Style,Arial]Claim: Pins, needles, and razor blades have been found in trick-or-treaters' loot.

<noindex> Status: True.

</noindex>[/font][font=Trebuchet MS,Bookman Old Style,Arial]Origins: [/font][font=Trebuchet MS,Bookman Old Style,Arial]Professor Joel Best reported that he's been able to track about eighty cases of sharp objects in food incidents since 1959, and almost all were hoaxes. Only about ten culminated in even minor injury, and in the worst case, a woman required a few stitches...[/font][font=Trebuchet MS,Bookman Old Style,Arial]

(In those instances where such an insertion could be traced back to a specific person, it was almost always some kid intent on freaking out either his little brother or his parents or getting the community in an uproar as his version of a cute Halloween "trick"). Pranking (especially when it's a scary or slightly mean one) is part of Halloween, and the various kids or young adults who've tampered with treats most likely never fully considered the potential consequences of the joke prior to embarking on it. [/font]

 

[MMDad]

You are right - I have always believed that the whole X-ray thing was stupid. However, my kids will not go door to door because I am concerned about the freaks out there. I know that there are two sex offenders who live within 500 yards of our house. I am not willing to take the chance and allow my kids to be someone's first victim. When they are older, I will allow the door to door thing to the extent that their maturity makes it appropriate.

We took the kids to Anne Marie Gardens yesterday. They got to experience the best parts of halloween:

1. Seeing other people's costumes
2. People laughing at their costumes
3. Asking for candy, getting candy, thanking people, and wishing them well.
4. Seeing friends.

 

[Tonio]

However, my kids will not go door to door because I am concerned about the freaks out there. I know that there are two sex offenders who live within 500 yards of our house. I am not willing to take the chance and allow my kids to be someone's first victim.

Very true. We only take our kids to friends' and relatives' homes on Halloween. And I've said before that sex crimes against minor children ought to carry a life sentence on the first offense.

Still, from what I've read, in any type of crime that victimizes a child, the perpetrator is almost always someone known to the victim. While I haven't read up on the statistics, the idea makes sense to me. The perpetrator has opportunity, and kids seem to be naturally wary of people they don't know. As a parent, I think that means we should be more watchful with the adults that our children encounter on a regular basis.

 

[MMDad]

You are correct. One of the local offenders actually molested his own kid. It sucks to be paranoid, but it's better than knowing you allowed your own child to become a victim.