Lompoc family troubled by tampered Halloween candy
A police investigation is underway in Lompoc after two families made disturbing discoveries in their Halloween candy.
Lompoc Police say two families have come forward to report finding small, metal pins inside Halloween candy their children picked up while trick-or-treating earlier this week.
“My daughter opened the door and asked me if she could have a piece of candy, I said yeah, one”, said one local woman, who did not want to reveal her identity, about her daughter taking a bite of a Kit-Kat bar in the morning after trick-or-treating and finding a small pin inside, “the end was bent where she said she had bit into it and I said are you kidding me?”
The woman said she closely examined the candy wrapper.
“There was a tiny hole, a pin-sized hole, in the wrapper”, the woman said.
“Both families trick-or-treated in opposite sides of the city, one in the northeast and one in the northwest”, says Lompoc Police Sgt. Kevin Martin about the full investigation into the apparent tampering, “that wrapper we’re going to send off to the California Department of Justice crime lab in Fresno to do some fingerprint work on it.”
Lompoc Valley Medical Center is offering free digital imaging x-rays for people concerned by the disturbing Halloween candy discovery.
“It takes about 5 seconds”, says Tim Stout with Lompoc Valley Medical Center about the digital imaging of the candy, “of course we make sure they understand we’re only looking for metal in the candy, we can’t see glass or wood or plastics, or things like that, or foreign chemicals.”
“Luckily she took a small enough bite where she didn’t swallow the whole thing”, the woman said about her daughter’s experience which has troubled their whole family, “i t’s really scary to think there are people out there that would ruin this for everybody. Its not anything to joke about, a child, that could kill somebody.”
The hospital says it will continue to provide the free candy x-rays into next week.
Lompoc Police say if anyone has any doubt about the safety of their Halloween candy to either have it x-rayed or simply throw it away.
