Stories of needles and razorblades in Halloween candy always seemed like urban legends to me. But last month, a woman in Calvert County reported to police that she discovered sewing needles inside candy her five-year-old daughter had received while trick-or-treating. Yesterday, though, the story took an interesting turn.
Holly Waters, the mother who had originally reported the tampered candy, told police that she was the one who’d put the needles in the candy herself. She’s facing misdemeanor charges for doing so.
When situations like this arise, I always think about Munchausen by proxy, a disorder in which parents try to gain attention by inducing illness or injury in their children. It’s hard to imagine another reason someone would tamper with their kids’ candy and then file a police report about it.
