Why urban legends about tampered Halloween candy endure

Every year, the myths about dangerous things in Halloween candy resurface in the American subconscious, whether it’s needles, glass, or the legendary razor blade in an apple.

The last one seems especially unbelievable, since it’s hard to imagine a child eating, let alone accepting, an apple on Halloween. Handing them out is cruel enough without the mythical threat. That’s why they sometimes wind up back on the lawn.

So before anyone puts their child’s Halloween candy under an X-ray machine, it’s worth remembering that all these stories are almost entirely untrue.

“It’s one of those things that everyone knows is true, even though there’s absolutely no evidence for it having happened,” said Joel Best, a professor or sociology and criminal justice at the University of Delaware.

Every year since 1985, Best has been updating an article he wrote stating that he’s been unable to find any substantiated report of a child ever being harmed by a contaminated treat picked up while trick or treating. The urban legends date back to the 1950s.

“Trick or treating is not as old as you think it is,” Best said. “It really became popular after World War II, and by the early 1950s there was a story going around that people would heat pennies on a skillet and pour the hot pennies into the outstretched hands of trick or treaters.”

“So this idea that bad people could hurt children trick or treating is really in circulation from the beginning of the practice.”

While there have been a few isolated cases of dangerous items showing up in Halloween candy, most reported cases are often the result of hoaxes, in which a parent was trying to gain financial compensation, or the child fabricated the tampered candy in order to get attention. They probably were grounded.

“This has morphed a little bit with the rise of social media,” Best said. “What’s been happening in recent years — and any kid knows how to do this — you get a candy bar, you stick a nail through it, you take a picture and you post it on your Facebook page, and say that you got this, and all of sudden police are investigating. And it’s just a prank.”

In any case, there’s little reason to worry. All that’s likely to be found in Halloween candy is additional layers of candy, like gum or jellies.

“I can’t say that this has never, ever happened, but I’ve been looking — going back to 1958 — and I can’t find any evidence that anybody’s ever been killed or seriously hurt this way,” Best said. “We like to be scared, we create new things to worry about all the time.”

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