Needles and pins found pushed into children’s Halloween sweets in Donegal

Gardaí are investigating reports that tailor’s pins and needles were discovered in sweets collected by young children during trick-or-treating on Halloween in Co Donegal. Though there were no reports of injuries sustained by any child, the matter is being taken seriously by the Garda on the basis a significant risk to child safety appears to have been deliberately created.The mother of one of the boy’s in whose sweets collection the items were found said they were so large and sharp they could have resulted in a fatality.Two families based in the Ballybofey-Stranorlar area discovered the pins in sweets and chocolates. They said the sharp pins and needles appear to have been carefully pushed through wrappers so they would be concealed in chocolate bars and other confectionery.READ MOREOne of the needles are being removed from the bar. The tip of a needle visible at the end of a chocolate bar. When the first discovery was made, the family involved published a warning on social media, leading to a second family checking the items their children had collected. Using a magnet, they also discovered pins embedded in the sweets, leading to an investigation by gardaí.“Gardaí received a report of an incident which occurred on October 31st in the Ballybofey-Stranorlar area in Co Donegal,” the Garda said in reply to queries, adding that “inquiries are ongoing”.Savannah McDaid, from Stranorlar, found pins in four items her preschool son had collected as he went house to house with friends. Philippa Falls, from Ballybofey, discovered a pin in a bar her son had collected.McDaid said the Halloween collection “was a fun time for us until we came home”. A needle covered in confectionary. Her son “got loads of sweets”, she said, but her mother had urged her to check them after seeing videos of items being inserted into confectionery given to children at Halloween.“I got a magnet and started to check all of his sweets,” she said, adding some of the items stuck to the magnet. “So I opened them and broke them up only to find a pin hidden in the bars and sweets. It’s a very dangerous, especially for kids excited to eat their sweets. “I never thought I’d ever find something so dangerous in a sweet given to children. I honestly don’t know what is going on in this world today, it’s a disgrace.”Once McDaid had posted about her discovery on social media, Falls saw it and said her son then checked his collection of sweets.“Inside a chocolate from a roses tin he found a pin,” she said. “I am horrified, gobsmacked and worried that someone could conceal something like this in a chocolate.“[It] could potentially be fatal. Please, please, check all sweets and chocolates in your child’s bags.”