Crime & Safety
Tainted Halloween Candy Suspected of Making Child Sick
Candy eaten by a 6-year-old from Huntington Beach, may have been laced with methamphetamine, authorities said.
Authorities today were analyzing the candy that a 6-year-old boy collected while trick-or-treating in Huntington Beach on Halloween to see if it was the source of methamphetamine ingestion that landed the tot in a hospital.
The boy, who does not live in Huntington Beach, had gone trick-or- treating in the neighborhood near Beach Boulevard and Atlanta Avenue on Thursday night, said Huntington Beach police Lt. Mitch O'Brien.
On Sunday, police became aware that the boy was hospitalized in Orange County for methamphetamine ingestion, O'Brien said. The child's parents noticed he was acting oddly, the lieutenant said.
"We haven't confirmed it was the candy -- that's just one possibility," O'Brien said.
A drug-sniffing dog checked out the boy's candy, but did not detect any narcotics. The candy was then sent to a laboratory to be analyzed, O'Brien said.
"We've got no reason to believe there's any danger out there," but police want parents to check their children's candy as a precaution, he said.
The boy's illness was not considered life-threatening, O'Brien said.
-- City News Service
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