Exacto-Knife Blade Found in Halloween Candy Has Parents on Alert

It’s a trick no parent wants to see in their children’s Halloween treats, a knife blade. But that’s what one Sonoma father said was in son’s candy.

The story was first reported by Christian Kallen in The Press Democrat. The father, Frank Gravatt, told the Press Democrat his son, Ottavio, and their friends were comparing their haul for the evening on Halloween night and one of them pulled out the blade from a Butterfinger bar.

It was an Exacto-blade commonly used by graphic artists and scrapbookers.

“Immediately that put a scare in the whole table, and nobody wanted to touch their candy,” Gravatt told the Press Democrat.

It put a damper on the evening, he said.

Gravatt, a visual effects artist at Industrial Light & Magic, immediately contacted the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department to report the incident and the Sonoma Police Department put out an advisory later that night, according to the Press Democrat.

This incident follows a string of alarming incidents where parents discovered dangerous objects in their children’s Halloween candies.

In New Jersey, a woman reported finding a piece of metal in her children’s candies. In Gloucester Township, N.J., a man was arrested after filing a false report of finding needles in trick-or-treating candies.

In Pensylvania, police are investigating several reports of finding needles in candies.

The FBI is investigating the incident in Maryland where a sewing needle was found in a package of Twizzlers. There was no evidence of the wrapper being tampered with in that incident, according to the Salisbury, M.D. police.

In all these cases, no one was hurt.

Despite the uptake in reports of tampered candies, children actually being hurt or sickened by tainted candies on Halloween has remained more of an urban legend than fact, according to a study by a University of Delaware sociology professor.

As comforting as that sounds, Gravatt was taking no chances and posted the photo of the blade on his Facebook page to warn other parents in the area.

Gravatt could not be reached for further comment.

Sonoma police said they are looking into the incident, however, there were no other reports of tampered candies. But, the department does advise parents to thoroughly inspect all Halloween candies before giving them to their children.