ROANOKE (WSLS 10) - As your children bring Halloween treats home Halloween weekend, it's important to make sure your family is not getting tricked.
That's why parents should be on alert for hidden horrors like sharp objects or drugs in Halloween candy or tampered packaging. A local man reached out to WSLS 10 claiming he found shards of glass in a lollipop.
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A grandfather from Rocky Mount bought a new bag of Charms blow pops for trick-or-treaters. When taste testing, he bit into something hard, not once or twice. When taking a closer look, he claims he found four pieces of glass.
"When I bit down on it, it actually punctured the roof of my mouth," said Shawn Blizzard. "So, that was real sore."
Glass was embedded in Blizzard's gums to the point where he used tweezers to pull it out.
"I put it to the side and I didn't really think of it," commented Blizzard. "I thought it was a piece of candy that was really hard. So, I continued chewing the gum and I bit into it again."
Blizzard said the shards were hard and brittle. When looking closer he claims it appeared to be glass.
He purchased the candy three days ago in preparation for Halloween. But, with a 5-year-old grandson, Blizzard is concerned other trick-or-treaters might bite into the same horror.
"I called the company and they are supposed to be sending me a return envelope because, they want to do an analysis on it," said Blizzard.
Police said candy leaves the manufacturer, it's transported to a store, then sits on a store shelf until purchase...there's opportunity for candy to be tampered with at any step before it ends up in your home.
When trick-or-treating police say time and time again, it's best to check your candy and it's wrapper before indulging.
"We talk to parents a lot about this they're like 'we know these ground rules we've been doing Halloween forever'," said Scott Leamon, of the Roanoke City Police Department. "But, you have to remember your kids have not. That's why it's important to have a plan."
Like Blizzard's strange findings in his Halloween pop, it's a scare no parent can prepare for, but can take precautions.
We reached out to Charms LLC for a comment. In a statement the Corporate Vice President Brooke Vane said: "In more than two decades of making this product, we have never had a product safety issue. We are happy to look into this customer and any customer's comments and concerns. We are 100 percent confident in all our products this week and every week of the year."
If you have a similar incident where candy has been tampered with, police urge you to call their general number.