On Halloween weekend 2015, scary news reports and warnings on social media claimed that dangerous candy had been found, raising fears among parents and children. A week after Halloween—after the candy had been eaten and the proverbial fairy dust had settled—the comforting truth about the latest candy scare finally came to light: Police determined that the incidents were hoaxes.
For example, a Philly.com news report stated that an eleven-year-old girl and a twelve-year-old boy “who reported finding needles in their trickor-treat candy in Kennett Square have admitted they made up the story. . . . The girl hid needles from her mother’s sewing kit in Twix bars she was given while trickor-treating, prosecutors said. She then lied to her parents, who prosecutors said rightly reported the incident to police. The boy heard about the first case, then put a needle inside a Snickers bar that he showed his older sister, who contacted police” (see http://tinyurl.com/ojjd752).