“How can you do something like that to children?” Silvio A. asked. The father sat at a table with his two daughters in Thuringia, in Umpferstedt and Herbsleben, looking over their collected sweet bags to find a metal staple, known as a Tackerklammer, embedded right inside a piece of bubble gum, while children across Germany and Switzerland discovered hazardous foreign objects hidden inside their Halloween confectionery.
Byline: Omar El Sayed – World Editor
Needles and Screws Found in Sweets
In Thuringia, police in Wintzingerode launched inquiries after children unwrapped their sweets to find embedded metal needles placed intentionally inside the confectionary. Similar hazards surfaced across several other regions. Neither he nor children in similar reported cases consumed the manipulated treats, and no injuries were initially reported by authorities.
Officials noted that an official or independent confirmation for the find in Switzerland is lacking, and it remains unclear how the screw arrived there or whether it was an intentional act.
Criminal Probes Open in German Towns
In Leinefelde-Worbis, children who visited numerous front doors on Saturday evening collected items that later yielded hidden metal needles, leaving investigators unable to pinpoint the exact household of origin.
BILD reported additional distressing finds, including a metal staple embedded inside a piece of bubble gum in Umpferstedt and Herbsleben, and a sharp fishing hook hidden within a kaubonbon discovered by a ten-year-old girl and her mother, Melanie B., in Herbsleben, who noted: We ourselves set up a big Halloween display for the children every year. That’s why we find it so incredibly terrible how people can do that to children.
In Filderstadt, Baden-Württemberg, two families discovered hidden needles inside milk-and-hazelnut wafer slices that were not visible from the outside. In Hannover, specifically in Misburg-Nord, a nine-year-old girl received chocolate bars, a Snickers, and chewing gum penetrated by sewing needles and nails. Additional reports emerged from Rielasingen-Worblingen in the Konstanz district, where individually wrapped wafer slices contained metallic foreign bodies.
Forensic Evidence and Police Warnings
Authorities urged parents nationwide to retain suspicious items alongside their original packaging and report them directly to local police stations without removing foreign objects themselves, preserving potential forensic evidence.
In response to the recurring hazards, parents across affected villages utilized social media groups and messaging apps to broadcast warnings, with some parents circulating online videos demonstrating how to scan confectionery for metal parts using magnets. Law enforcement agencies reiterated public safety advisories, encouraging thorough inspection of all collected confectionery before consumption, following similar dangerous occurrences on October 31, 2025, when a mother in Kiel, northern Germany, discovered double-sided ground razor blades concealed among the Halloween sweets gathered by her four children.
