The Bonnyville RCMP is continuing to search for the culprit behind a pill being stuffed inside a local trick or treater's Halloween candy.
Last week, the local RCMP detachment received a complaint from a parent that they had found a white pill stuffed inside a candy that was given to their child during trick or treating on Oct. 31. The white, oval pill had the letters APO on the side and was put inside a candy similar to a Starburst.
“It was actually physically placed inside the candy itself and then reintroduced into the wrapper. So it was tucked away in there with the intent that someone would chew it unintentionally,” said S/Sgt. Luis Gandolfi.
The kids had been trick or treating down main street in Bonnyville and in the area of 44 Ave. Officers were informed that once the children had gotten home, they dumped their candy into a pile, which they then each got a portion of the candy back.
“In this case, it wasn't a child who located the candy with the pill. It was an adult male who was snacking on the kid's candy,” explained Gandolfi.
While in his 20 years of policing Gandolfi hasn't personally seen an incident like this happen, he said that other officers have informed him it does occur.
“I have to be clear, I don't have facts to support this, but I'm told that this does happen around Halloween and it's a situation where typically whatever is put in the candy is Aspirin or something relatively benign.”
Gandolfi added, “What people have to consider, particularly the people responsible, is that even though you might be putting in Aspirin or Tylenol there are people out there with allergies. Even if you're doing something like this with just the intent of causing a stir or some feat in the community, you could end up really hurting a person or possibly killing them. I hope those that did this think about that.”
Local residents took to social media to express their disgust with the incident, with many parents saying they will be throwing out their child's Halloween candy. Gandolfi said that's one option: throwing out or replacing the candy; the other option for parents is thoroughly checking over every candy before allowing your child to snack.
The pill found in the candy has been sent to a lab for testing, but it will be two to four months before the Bonnyville RCMP detachment receives results back.
“It'll probably be more concerning if what we get back as far as an analysis is what we consider toxic or otherwise poisonous. We don't have that information, so everything's just speculation,” said Gandolfi.
“I'm hopeful that when we get the results it'll come back as something relatively benign.”
