DELAWARE - Halloween is upon us and so are many warnings about checking for hazardous candy. But just how likely is that to happen to trick-or-treaters? One University of Delaware professor proves that it is not that likely.
"A girl bit into an apple and there was a raze blade in it and it cut her lip," said Deborah Hillyard, a Sussex county resident.
These are just one of many tales trick-or-treaters are warned about every year. Things like finding tainted candy, needles, broken glass, and more inside kids' Halloween buckets.
WRDE spoke with Joel Best, a sociology and criminal justice professor at the University of Delaware who's been studying the topic since the early 1980s and says he's found no reported evidence of kids getting seriously injured to hazardous candy.
"I have more than 60 years of data and I can't find any evidence that any child has ever been killed or seriously hurt by a contaminated treat picked up in the course of trick-or-treating. I mean you know you can't prove a negative you can't prove that some things never happened but I don't think that there's any evidence that this is a big problem," explained Best.
The UD professor went on to explain that for some criminal cases he's studied, there was always a reason behind why people did criminal activities. He said as far as contaminating candies to then hand out to kids, he found no motive for someone to do such a thing.
Lewes Police Department says they've never had reports of tainted candy.
"I don't want to say that parents shouldn't be cautious and do certain things to protect their kids because they definitely should. Could they be just old wise tales passed down possibly," said Chief Thomas Spell.
WRDE reached out to the Rehoboth Beach Police Department who also says a case like this has never been reported in the area but safety is their priority.
In the meantime, some locals say they're still going to check their candy because you just never know.
"We don't really think people will do that where we go but we still check for that because you never know people are a little crazy sometimes," said a Sussex county resident Alexia Parker.
A full list for trick-or-treating hours on Delmarva can be found here: https://www.wrde.com/story/44947385/trickortreat-dates-and-times-for-delmarva-2021