Police investigate candy incident

Boy goes to hospital after tasting Halloween treats

Lorain police are investigating a situation in which a 15-year-old Lorain boy was taken to the hospital Oct. 31 after tasting his Halloween candy.

Lorain police Lt. Mike Failing issued a statement the afternoon of Nov. 1 that said there is no concrete evidence the effects the child was experiencing came from tainted candy.

The investigation is continuing, Failing said.

Officers responded at 7:58 p.m., Oct. 31, to 1600 block of Fillmore Avenue to a call from Martha Calabrese, a 25-year-old Lorain woman.

Calabrese said her younger brother was out trick-or-treating in the area of Fillmore Avenue and Hancock and Paine streets, and he felt ill after licking a lollipop, according to a Lorain police report.

The teen told police it didn’t taste right, the report said. He also said it smelled funny and was not in a wrapper.

He said the man who gave him the lollipop told him not to worry that the packages were open

because he just got them from the store, the report said.

The boy said he threw it away after sucking on it for

a while.

After about 10 minutes, he said his whole body felt numb, according to the report.

His family declined LifeCare ambulance and took the boy to Mercy Health Lorain Hospital, the report said.

An officer took the boy’s fellow trick-or-treaters out to find the house, but were unsuccessful in locating it, according to the report.

The male was described as a 6-foot 2-inch black male, with a medium build, bald and wearing all black, the report said.

“We are in communication with the family, but we have not determined what house it was and if the sucker was laced with anything,” said Lorain police Sgt. Dennis Camarillo said. “We’ve narrowed down where they think the house is, but that’s based on

the fact the kids got similar looking candy from that house. It could have come from another location; we don’t know at this time.”

The teen’s mother, Celena Burkhammer Shaffer said the staff at Mercy Health gave him a 1-milligram dose of naloxone and he

was feeling better within 15 minutes.

Calabrese said the staff told them the substance needed to have been in his body for a few hours before they could identify what it was, so the family was taking him to his family doctor to determine what it was.