Needles and magnets found in Halloween sweets in Germany, police assume deliberate tampering

Needles in Filderstadt and Thuringia

Two families in Filderstadt, a town in the Esslingen district of Baden-Württemberg, found several needles inside milk-hazelnut bars after their children came home from trick-or-treating on Halloween evening. According to police, the needles could not be seen from the outside, and the families alerted the officers, who urged parents in Filderstadt to check their children's sweets carefully and, if necessary, throw them away. The Filderstadt police assume an unknown person placed the needles on purpose and say they could have caused injuries if the sweets had been eaten.

In Thuringia, the Landespolizeiinspektion Nordhausen reported metal needles in several sweets in Wintzingerode, a locality in the Eichsfeld district that belongs to the town of Leinefelde-Worbis. The children noticed the needles while unpacking their haul on Saturday evening, after ringing doorbells at numerous houses. Because so many doors were visited, police cannot yet establish where the affected sweets came from, and no injuries were initially known.

Magnets in Appenheim

In Rhineland-Palatinate, a nine-year-old boy in Appenheim, in the Mainz-Bingen district, found two magnets attached to a chewy candy. He had checked his sweets after his mother noticed warnings about possible manipulation on Instagram. Each magnet measured roughly two millimetres across, and police in Ingelheim said nobody had been hurt. Officers have opened an investigation into the find.

Police warnings and earlier cases

Both police forces have urged parents to check collected sweets carefully before anyone eats them. In Thuringia, investigators are looking into suspected attempted dangerous bodily harm, and a criminal proceeding has been initiated. Police there say the sweets were deliberately prepared to cause injuries, and no suspect has been reported so far. The trick-or-treating took place on Saturday, 31 October, while the Rhineland-Palatinate police reported the Appenheim find during the night and the Thuringian statement came on Sunday, 1 November. Similar finds had occurred in earlier years, including in 2025, when a mother in Kiel found razor blades among her children's Halloween sweets.