Metal in Halloween sweets: four solved Austrian cases point to children tampering

Austria: most cases and the first solutions

Austria has the largest count of reported cases in the sweet tampering reports. As of 5 November, 21 cases had been reported: seven in Styria, six in Lower Austria, four in Upper Austria, three in Vienna and one in Salzburg. Authorities set up a nationwide investigation group called "Treat" to handle them.

Styria7

Lower Austria6

Upper Austria4

Vienna3

Salzburg1

Styria

7 cases

Lower Austria

6 cases

Upper Austria

4 cases

Vienna

3 cases

Salzburg

1 cases

Data from the article text

Four cases have been cleared so far, one each in Vienna and Upper Austria and two in Styria. In all four, children appear to have tampered with the sweets themselves. Earlier reports from Linz, cited by the news agency APA, described a father who found nails in chocolate bars and chewy sweets his children had collected. The Federal Criminal Police Office warned against treating such acts as a joke or copying online challenges, and said offenders may face criminal charges depending on the case.

Germany: Brandenburg and Baden-Württemberg

In Brandenburg, police reported two new cases. In Cottbus, a nine-year-old girl bit into a chewy sweet from her Halloween haul and noticed a small nail in it, the Polizeidirektion Süd said. She was not hurt. In Groß Pankow in the Prignitz district, a 32-year-old woman checking the sweets collected by children found screws in several chewy sweets. Police urged people to examine collected sweets carefully for tampering.

In Baden-Württemberg, the state criminal police office (LKA) is looking into incidents in six municipalities. Reports from Filderstadt-Bonlanden in Esslingen district and Rielasingen-Worblingen in Konstanz district describe objects found in waffle slices, while Bad Rappenau had pins in chocolate bars. No one has been reported injured so far. The LKA is comparing how the offences were carried out. On Tuesday, 3 November, it said it could not yet determine whether they were part of a social media trend, and it has found no reliable evidence of blackmail attempts. The regional police headquarters responsible initially classified the cases as attempted dangerous bodily harm.

Why children tamper with sweets

Sociologist Susanne Vogl of the University of Stuttgart told SWR that such acts usually aim to make a statement against something. She said perpetrators find it easier when they have no direct contact with the people they harm.

“When you have no direct contact with the people you are harming, such acts come more easily.”

Vogl also said media coverage can fuel such acts. Because so little is known about the cases, the background and motive remain unclear. In Austria, police said three of the four cleared cases were meant to frighten parents, while the fourth followed an online challenge intended to mislead police. Investigators said the internet had played a role in the cleared cases, both in spreading such content and in copying it.

Scare parents3

Online challenge1

Scare parents

3 cases

Online challenge

1 cases

Data from the article text

Isolated cases in Neuburg and Switzerland

In Neuburg an der Donau, police initially reported a chocolate bar with a nail that parents had found during a check before eating. The eight-year-old girl later admitted she had made up the find and said she had followed a trend on social media. A police spokesperson would not name the platform or the trend. The family had been collecting sweets in the Ostend district.

In Switzerland, a girl in Schönenwerd in the canton of Solothurn found a screw in a chocolate bar and noticed it before eating. She could no longer recall where she had got the bar. No further cases in Switzerland are known.