Denton police want answers after a 5-year-old nearly ate powerful painkillers disguised as Halloween candy.
According to the police report, officers were called to a home on the 1900 block of North Lake Trail Saturday night where the scary find was made at a party. The hosts of the party told officers they used leftover candy from trick-or-treating to fill a piñata, and after it was broken open, a 5-year-old guest opened the tainted box.
"Spit it out because he said it tasted funny,” said public information officer Ryan Grelle. “Come to find out it was some pills."
Police said the candy had been replaced with 36 hydrocodone pills.
The boy didn’t appear to ingest any full pills and Grelle said he seemed to be fine.
Denton police don’t have reason to suspect the family hosting the party stashed the pills in the box, but said the family told them the candy came from trick-or-treating in the Oakmont neighborhood of south Denton and Corinth.
At this point, Grelle said an investigation is underway to see if they can track the source of the tainted candy box, but he urges parents to take warnings seriously and check children’s Halloween candy before allowing them to eat it.
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"Leading up to Halloween, we always tell people to make sure you check your kids Halloween candy for that tampering, just in case; this is obviously the reason why,” Grelle said.
Neighbors in Oakmont were shocked to hear about the find Monday, many saying they always thought stories of tampered-with Halloween candy to be urban legend.
"I'm kind of shocked to hear that something like this would happen in our neighborhood,” said Oakmont neighbor and step-father Jack Taylor.
The Oakmont area is made up of several subdivisions around the Oakmont Country Club. Many neighbors said it’s regular on Halloween night to see folks travel to the area to trick-or-treat.
