Police: Girl bit needle in candy bar
Family was trick-or-treating near Lomas and Tramway
It’s the stuff of urban legends.
Police say a 12-year-old girl who had been trickor-treating in a foothills neighborhood Wednesday night bit into a needle embedded in a 3 Musketeers candy bar.
She was taken to the hospital as a precaution. Officer Simon Drobik, an Albuquerque Police Department spokesman, said police are now warning anyone who went trick-or-treating in the neighborhood near Lomas and Tramway NE — or anywhere else in the city — to be careful.
“The main point is to make the city aware this happened,” he said. “Hopefully, it’s just a standalone incident but we want to make sure every family checks their kid’s candy.”
Halloween night the girl’s mother, Christina Robinson, called police to report the find. Robinson said her family had gone trick-or-treating up Nakomis
to Chelwood Park. She told officers she had seen people in a vehicle at the park handing out candy, but she was not able to remember what the vehicle looked like.
Police say she was unsure if this was the origin of the candy bar in question.
“This seemed strange to her, but she also noted it was not the only car doing this,” an officer wrote in the report. “Christina said she and other members of the family immediately began to eat some of the candy from this family group in the car and none reported finding anything out of the ordinary.”
The family returned home and dived into their haul.
“When (the girl) bit into the candy, she impaled a small sewing needle to the top of her mouth causing her to scream in pain and alerting others to the incident,” the officer wrote in the report. “Mom quickly removed the needle and tossed it on the floor.”
The girl was taken to the emergency room and will be monitored for infectious diseases.
Robinson declined to speak with the Journal on Thursday.
As for the needle and the candy bar, both were turned over to the police, photographed and tagged into evidence. A photo provided by Albuquerque police shows it to be about an inch long but it’s unclear if it is a pin or a needle.
“A service request was also submitted for the candy wrapper to be tested for any DNA that could lead to a suspect,” the officer wrote in the report.
Drobik said no suspects have been identified.
“It’s really appalling that an individual would do this to a child,” he said.
A Google search for needles found in candy bars, turned up about half a dozen similar cases around the country this year.
And a Snopes fact check article rates the general claim as true and reports that a Minnesota man was charged in 2000 after police determined he put needles in multiple Snickers bars.
Drobik said he had heard about people in other states finding sharp objects in candy bars, but he doesn’t remember any other cases in Albuquerque.
“As for needles and razor blades in candy it has been considered an urban legend,” he said. “But this time it has been verified here through our detectives and documentation at the hospital.”