Towamencin 13-year-old finds razor blade hidden in candy bar loot
A 13-year-old trick-or-treater in Montgomery County made a horrifying discovery Saturday morning after unwrapping a candy bar he picked up on Halloween: a large razor blade.
A 13-year-old trick-or-treater in Montgomery County made a horrifying discovery Saturday morning after unwrapping a candy bar he picked up on Halloween: a large razor blade.
The candy had been sealed when the boy opened it and immediately discovered the blade loose inside the wrapper, not hidden in the candy itself, said Sgt. John Cutrone of the Towamencin Township Police Department.
"I was just sitting in my living room, my son's sitting in the kitchen . . . he opens up the wrapper, and there's a razor blade, like the ones you get out of a cutter, right on top of it," said Jennifer Gage, the boy's mother. "He's like, 'Mom, look, there's a razor blade right in this candy!' "
She said the blade was inside a small, "snack size" Nestle Crunch bar. Cutrone declined to identify the brand, saying that could lead parents to overlook other types of candy that may also have concealed objects.
He said it was unclear whether the candy bar had been opened and then resealed. It was also unclear which house the candy came from, but the child had been trick-or-treating in the area of Woodlawn Drive and Walnut Lane in the Inglewood Development section of the township, Cutrone said.
"It's a very controlled area, it's only like three streets," Gage said.
Police will publicize the incident on the township website and social-media feeds, Cutrone said; the North Penn School District used its notification system to inform parents.
Asked whether it might have been a prank, Cutrone said police were investigating all possibilities.
Gage said that, despite the shock, the incident wouldn't necessarily change her family's approach to Halloween. She had taught her kids to check candy and use common sense.
"We live in a very strange world right now," she said.
Not that fears of malicious Halloween tricksters are anything new: When Gage was a child, her family would take bags of candy to a local hospital and have them run through an X-ray machine.
Joel Best, a sociology and criminal justice professor at the University of Delaware, has been tracking reports of poisoned and altered Halloween candy since 1985.
"I'm not surprised by something like this," said Best, who was told about the Towamencin case by a reporter.
Still, people should be skeptical of reports of razor blades, needles, or poison in Halloween candy, Best said, because they often turn out to be pranks or, in some cases, unrelated to trick-or-treating.
"I cannot find any evidence that any child has ever been killed or seriously injured by a contaminated treat in the course of trick-or-treating," he said.
Towamencin police asked residents to check all candy for foreign objects. If they suspect any tampering, they can contact the department at 215-368-7606.
"I've lived here for eight years, and all my neighbors said the same thing: Who would ever think that someone in our neighborhood would do this to a kid?" Gage said. "How else would it have gotten in his bag? He went out trick-or-treating and came back."
