Police investigate after nails found in Linz Halloween sweets

Police are investigating after nails were found in sweets collected by children on Halloween in Linz, ORF reported. A 28-year-old father discovered them in chocolate bars and chewy sweets gathered by his children and other neighbourhood children.

The nails were about one centimetre long. Some had apparently been pushed into the sweets from the outside and were visible, while others were embedded and difficult to spot, a police spokeswoman said. Investigators believe the sweets were tampered with by hand.

Kimberly Pernegger, whose children found the nails, said she was shocked. Her youngest child is five and her oldest is nine. “If my child had bitten into one and something had happened, I would have felt guilty for the rest of my life,” she said.

Neighbour Dragan Vulic said children had collected sweets from homes in the neighbourhood, including bowls left outside doors. After hearing about the nails on social media, he and others checked the sweets collected by the family and found many of them, he said.