Perpetrator unknown

Metal Pieces in Chocolate: More Cases Reported

Once again, new cases of tampered chocolate have come to light.(Bild: pixel-shot.com (Leonid Yastremskiy) stock.adobe)

The string of cases involving tampered chocolate shows no signs of ending. More tampered candy has turned up in Styria, Lower Austria, and Upper Austria.

A 29-year-old man from Linz found the screw on Tuesday afternoon in the Halloween candy his children had collected. The two children (aged eight and four) had apparently collected the candy bar on Saturday in the Ebelsberg neighborhood. A video on social media had alerted the man to the series of incidents—which is why he took a closer look at the candy. He then discovered the screw inside a chocolate bar.

Here’s What to Do

• Austrian police warned parents and guardians to carefully check thecandy collected on Halloween night with their childrenbefore eating it.
• In particular, check whether the packaging has been damaged or tampered with and whether there are any foreign objects—especially metal objects—inside the candy.
• At the same time, people are urged to remain level-headed. Health complaints such as headaches, nausea, or feeling unwell can have various causes and are not necessarily related to the consumption of potentially tampered candy.
• If you find candy that appears to have been tampered with, you should keep it along with its packaging and report it to the police. To preserve potential evidence for the criminal investigation, do not remove any foreign objects from the candy or tamper with it in any other way.

New Cases in Styria
Two additional cases have also come to light in Styria, specifically in the districts of Leibnitz and Murtal, as reported Wednesday morning by Heinz Holub-Friedreich, spokesperson for the Federal Criminal Police Office.

In the Leibnitz district, a piece of candy containing metal had already been found on Monday evening, bringing the total number of cases in that district to two.

In one of the two cases that have now come to light, a mother became aware of the issue through media reports over the past few days. Before giving the treats to her children, she broke open the candy and found the metal inside.

New Findings in Lower Austria
Two additional cases were reported from Lower Austria, in the districts of Amstetten and Melk.

Cases in Four Federal States
So far, cases of tampered candy have been reported in a total offour federal states. There have been six cases in Styria and one in Salzburg. In Upper Austria, three cases have been made public so far, and in Lower Austria, three (in one case, a child was even slightly injured when biting into the candy). 

“Treat” Special Investigation Unit Established
Items found in the candy include needles, screws, nails, and even metal staples. A special investigation unit has since been established to handle the case and is now hunting down the perpetrators. The “Treat” investigative team is being coordinated centrally by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BK). The goal is to centrally document the incidents that have come to light so far, identify possible connections, and advance the investigations in close cooperation with the relevant state criminal police offices. 

Not only in Austria but also in other countries, tampered candy has been discovered around Halloween. In Germany, for example, there are cases in nearly every federal state. Findings have also been reported in Hungary. And reports of tampered candy have emerged in Canada as well.

Networking via the Internet?
Not least because of the modus operandi and the widespread nature of the cases, investigators are also looking into whether the perpetrators are connected via the Internet or social media. 

The warning remains in effect: do not eat any collected candy without checking it first.