Someone in my neighbourhood gave my child poisoned Halloween candy tonight

[By the River]

When my late grandma was well past it, she would regularly give us ''treats'' that were years out of date. Sometimes mouldy or funky smelling (we found it fun to open up the packaging to see just how gross it would be - kids!!).

Several years ago at a flea market, a vendor had unopened packs of baseball cards from years past.  I bought a pack from the year that each of my sons were born (14 & 12 year old packs).   They immediately chewed the gum and said it was a little dry and chalky.   

[FrugalShrew]

Well, for anyone still interested . . .

I mentioned that my son got a bad cookie for Halloween to one of my neighbours last night.  She said that it has regularly come up over the past few years (specifically with packaged cookies), although always with older/taller kids who were out trick or treating.

I reported the incident to the police, but they said that since they haven't received other complaints and I can't point out exactly which house it came from there isn't really anything that they can do.

Very interesting.

Has anyone ever said anything to the old lady about the issue? There is still a real possibility that she's clueless -- that she doesn't eat the cookies herself and thinks they are a treat for the older kids on Halloween.

However, that this has happened before also substantiates your suspicions that there could be something funny going on. The odds of it being an accident just went way down.

If it were me, I would probably try to solve this directly first before getting the police involved. Establish yourself as a friendly neighbor, try to bring up the issue gently, and just see what she has to say. I suspect there's either a history behind it or maybe some kind of mental illness, because handing out expired cookies to make kids sick seems like an over-the-top reaction to older kids trick-or-treating.

[SKL-HOU]

maybe she is giving cookies to older kids because cookies are less desirable (i assume) than candy and chocolate for all kids. So she gives the better treats (candy/chocolate) to younger ones for being young.

[LeRainDrop]

When my late grandma was well past it, she would regularly give us ''treats'' that were years out of date. Sometimes mouldy or funky smelling (we found it fun to open up the packaging to see just how gross it would be - kids!!).

Several years ago at a flea market, a vendor had unopened packs of baseball cards from years past.  I bought a pack from the year that each of my sons were born (14 & 12 year old packs).   They immediately chewed the gum and said it was a little dry and chalky.

That's always how baseball card gum tasted!

[electriceagle]

maybe she is giving cookies to older kids because cookies are less desirable (i assume) than candy and chocolate for all kids. So she gives the better treats (candy/chocolate) to younger ones for being young.

Thats my guess too.

For her to modify the cookies, she would have to own one of the machines used to seal the plastic around them. Its much more likely that she brought a box of cookies 5 years ago (for the grandkids who no longer come to visit) and hasn't used them up yet.

Honestly, unless you can find one of the "older children", I would treat the revelation of older/taller kids getting bad cookies in the past as bias towards confirmation (different from confirmation bias) on the part of the person giving you the information.

You didn't think the spoiled cookies were serious enough to take the kid to the hospital for. Perhaps your body's instinctive spoiled food analysis told you that the cookies were rotten, but specific information didn't make it to your brain. Taking action against the old black lady probably isn't the right approach here.

[sweettea]

Remember that there have never been a confirmed instance, ever, in the US, of someone handing oit deliberately poisoned candy (or even pot-laced stuff).

[Abe]

Outside observer's interpretation: Your kid got a gross expired cookie. He didn't like it, was afraid of eating the other candy & that spoiled Halloween for him. This sounds more likely than someone poisoning him.

[Johnez]

Sucks to hear, seems all is well and nothing permanently damaged.

Regarding the description including race, I gotta say it *sounds* bad, but considering where Guitar_Stv's mindset may have been, sounds like he was simply trying to recall EVERY detail. Giving a description to the cops, as he was contemplating, one would surely give this as a detail.

[Giro]

If you have any of the cookie left, take it to the local health dept.  They will test it for you and let you know why it tastes bad.

Re the malt vinegar....my daughter got a pack of ranch dressing in her Halloween bag.  bwahahaha.  I thought it was hysterical.    The house probably ran out of candy and were scrambling.  LOL

[meghan88]

Sucks to hear, seems all is well and nothing permanently damaged.

Regarding the description including race, I gotta say it *sounds* bad, but considering where Guitar_Stv's mindset may have been, sounds like he was simply trying to recall EVERY detail. Giving a description to the cops, as he was contemplating, one would surely give this as a detail.

+1

[MrsPete]

I suspect the woman bought them somewhere like Big Lots, where a bunch of stuff is already expired ... or she'd had them in her house a long time, and they'd grown too old. 

Also, back when we used to live in a community that received lots of trick-or-treaters (we get none now), I did have two types of treats:  Little kids received good stuff ... teenagers without costumes (or teenagers dressed as prostitutes) who didn't even speak and just shoved a bag out got one piece of little candy. 

[LadyMuMu]

You don't necessarily need to be old, black, or senile to do this sort of thing. In my 30's I accidentally gave my own sister rotten milk to drink out of my fridge. Oh, and I'm white. Maybe it's a single lady thing?