A family in Alice Springs has alerted authorities to a suspicious package collected by their 11-year-old daughter while trick-or-treating on Wednesday night.
Anastasia Byrnes said her daughter Lilly was going through her stash of lollies when she got home and came across the small Korean-labelled package.
"She got home at about eight o'clock and of course she checked her loot," Ms Byrnes said.
"She tipped the bag out and was like 'oh, look at all these lollies!'
"It looks like a little tear-open towelette bag, and then you open it and there's two yellow pills inside with some numbers on it, like little capsules."
Ms Byrnes described her initial reaction upon seeing the tablets as "shock".
"What is that? That looks like a drug. Who would make a lolly to look like a drug?'" she said.
She said she was not sure what the pills were so asked a Korean friend.
"She said it was a skin whitening drug, which I was really shocked to hear," she said.
"I don't know if it was put in there by mistake or someone was actually giving these out to kids last night. It's really, really disturbing."
The outback town has a strong tradition of celebrating Halloween, given the large American population associated with Pine Gap who live and work in the town.
Police say pills likely to be a 'supplement'
Superintendent Bradley Currie said Northern Territory Police in Alice Springs were aware of the sachet and had identified the contents.
"The green sachet covered in foreign writing was likely a supplement containing glutathione," he said.
"Glutathione is produced by the liver and also found in fruits, vegetables, and meats.
"[It is] also supplied within supplements and available over-the-counter in chemists or online."
He said parents should be aware of what their children brought home from trick-or-treating and discard any confectionery that was not clearly identifiable.
Plea for families to check lolly bags
Ms Byrnes posted an image of the pills and packaging on social media in an effort to warn other parents to check their children's lollies from Halloween.
"I'm just worried about little kids. What would they do? They might just open it and take it," she said.
"It looks really disturbing for someone to do this on a fun family night, even if it's for a joke."
Despite this year's experience, Ms Byrnes said she would not put off celebrating Halloween in the years to come.
"I'll probably just monitor it more closely; maybe walk around with them to check what's going in the bags," she said.
