Needles and nails discovered in Halloween candy

More and more cases nationwide: Needles and nails discovered in Halloween candy As of: November 2nd, 2026 • 5:21 p.m

Cases of foreign bodies found in Halloween candy are increasing nationwide. Police are asking parents to carefully check the treats their children have collected. The investigation is ongoing.

After Halloween, more and more cases of candy prepared with sharp metal parts become known nationwide. According to the police, investigations are ongoing in Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Saxony-Anhalt, North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Brandenburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse and Thuringia.

At least one child was injured: In Bremervörde, Lower Saxony, a nine-year-old bit on a chocolate bar that she had collected that was spiked with a pin that was at least five centimeters long, according to police in Rotenburg. She injured her tongue.

In Munich, a nine-year-old bit on a chewy candy manipulated with a needle that he had brought from a collecting session on Saturday evening. He spat it out “instinctively” and remained unharmed.

Needles in Halloween candy: What parents need to pay attention to now tagesschau24, November 2nd, 2026 • 11:00 a.m. Needles in chocolate bars In Essen, two families found needles in chocolate bars and a bag of wine gum, as the police in the North Rhine-Westphalian city announced on Sunday evening. These were therefore collected by their children from front doors on Halloween evening. The families lived in different parts of the city, no one was injured, and the investigation is ongoing.

In Hamburg, a 13-year-old received a chocolate bar from two people in disguise who were presumably teenagers while she was out collecting sweets. What was striking was how the two disguised people laughed, according to the police. When the girl unpacked the bar on Sunday, she realized that it contained a needle.

Dangerous objects also appeared in candy after Halloween in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. In Schönberg near Lübeck, needles were found in chocolate bars on Sunday, the police said.

In Filderstadt, Baden-Württemberg, two families found several needles in two slices of milk hazelnut. According to the police, they were not visible from the outside - one of the mothers had searched her daughter's collected sweets with a magnet after reporting about prepared sweets.

In Holm, Schleswig-Holstein, parents discovered nails in chewy sweets, according to police in Bad Segeberg. Accordingly, a three and a half centimeter long nail was initially noticed in a piece of candy, then more were discovered. Investigations into attempted grievous bodily harm were also underway there.

In Burg on the Schleswig-Holstein island of Fehmarn, a girl found a three-centimeter-long sewing needle in an openwork chocolate bar. According to the Lübeck police, the eleven-year-old was traveling with a companion of the same age and her parents filed a complaint.

According to the police, in Umpferstedt near Weimar in Thuringia, stapler needles were discovered on Sunday in chewy sweets that two children aged eleven and twelve had collected on Saturday evening while walking around. They also remained uninjured. It was still unclear exactly where the sweets came from.

Lower Saxony, Hanover: There is a needle in a chocolate bar. According to police, unknown persons distributed candy with needles to children in the Misburg-Nord district on Halloween.

Parents also found dangerous objects in their children's Halloween candy in several places in Bavaria. There were two cases in Landshut and Adlkofen in which sweets contained sharp objects, screws and needles. In Vilshofen an der Donau, parents discovered a nail in a crispy waffle. In Nuremberg, Obernburg am Main and Neuburg an der Donau, children found needles while unpacking chocolate bars.

Several similar cases had already become known nationwide - including in Eichsfeld and Herbsleben in Thuringia and in Hanover. In Austria, metal objects were also discovered in candy collected by children on Halloween.

Police everywhere recommended that parents check the candy collected by their children. When checking the sweets, particular attention should be paid to possible puncture marks, damaged packaging or other abnormalities. Attention should also be paid to packaging that is externally undamaged. Anyone who discovers suspicious sweets should not eat them, store them with packaging and contact the police.

Little is known about the background. In many places, police believe that the needles were intentionally inserted into the candy. Nothing is known about the perpetrator or motive. It is also unclear whether there is a connection between the finds in the different regions. Some police departments are now investigating suspected attempted grievous bodily harm.

In recent years, metal objects have also been found in Halloween candy in Germany. In 2025, a mother in Middle Franconia discovered a two-centimeter-long nail in one of her daughter's sweets. However, the current accumulation of cases in Germany is very noticeable. To what extent this could be a trend on social media is still completely unclear.

This topic in the program: tagesschau24 | News | 11/02/2026 | 11:00 a.m