Marysville boy finds small, sharp nail in his Halloween candy bar

MARYSVILLE, Wash. -- A 12-year-old boy found a nail in his Halloween candy bar, police said Tuesday.

The boy, Michael Joel, said he noticed a hole in the wrapper before he opened it. That's when he found a nail inside.

Michael said he must have hit around 40 homes on Halloween night in two different neighborhoods while trick-or-treating. He came back with quite the haul of candy -- but that one mini Snickers with the nail in it could have done a lot of damage.



“Good, until I got home and found out there was a needle thing in my Snickers,” said Joel, describing how he felt when he got home.

That "needle thing" turned out to be a small, sharp nail tucked into the middle of a Snickers bar. He says he only checked the candy bar because there was a hole in the wrapper.

“Cause I thought the hole was just a tear when I dropped my bag,” said Joel.

His mom took pictures and called police, who sent an officer over to investigate and to make sure this wasn’t some young boy’s Halloween hoax.

“But at this point we don’t have anything that suggests that’s the case, so at this point we are treating this as a valid incident,” said Rob Lamoureux with Marysville police.

Once Michael’s mom shared the pics on Facebook, another mom said she found a screw in her child’s candy.

“We have heard that there is a second incident in a different neighborhood,” said Lamoureux.

Police say it’s a good idea to check all your children’s candy.

“If you’re in doubt, throw it out,” said Lamoureux.

Joel said the nail in his candy bar almost ruined Halloween.

“Cause I don’t want to find anything else in my candy, because candy is good,” he said.

But he’ll be even more careful in the future.

“Now, I know if I’m going to go eat a piece of candy, I’m going to break it open first.”

Police said finding where the nail came from isn’t impossible but, without more specific details on who gave Joel the Snickers bar, it’s unlikely. There’s even a chance someone put the nail into the Snickers bar at the grocery store where it was bought, police said.