The hunt is on to find the person who rammed sewing needle inside KitKat chocolate bars and then handed them to children on Halloween.
Sewing needles were found in two pieces of chocolate in the town of Fostoria, Ohio, in the US, it is reported.
The town’s police said it is still unclear which specific street the potentially harmful chocolate bars were distributed on, but they have narrowed it down to three areas in the town.
Fostoria Police Chief Keith Loreno told local news station WTVG: “Although we only are aware of two pieces of candy being involved, we take this seriously and are appalled that anyone would be so demented as to want to hurt children in our community.”
A local community hospital is now offering to X-ray choc bars for worried parents.
Pictures released by the police department showed one of the pieces of chocolate, a Kit Kat bar, with a needle coming out of one end of its wrapper.
A second image showed the bar cut open with the needle embedded inside.
University of Delaware professor Joel Best, who has been tracking tampered Halloween sweets since 1958, tried to calm concerned parents.
"I can find no evidence that any child has ever been killed or seriously injured by a contaminated treat picked up in the course of trick-or-treating," he told CNN.
"While reports of contaminated treats do occur, I know of only two efforts to try and investigate reports of contaminated treats; both concluded that most were hoaxes."
The UK had its own tampered confectionary issue this year.
Parents were warned to be vigilant this Halloween about sweets bags that in fact contain cannabis.
Police in Rochdale urged people to be wary of what their kids are consuming when they go out trick or treating.
There are said to be multiple different kinds of the drug sweets, Manchester Evening News reported.
"This could have serious consequences for any young person or child who may consume these," police said of the packets.
"Please keep an eye out over Halloween to see what your children are consuming."
One respondent to the police post said: "These packets all over Rochdale lol. I’ve seen them before."
