Child Finds Vodka In Halloween Candy Bag, Police Say
WALPOLE (CBS) – Police in Walpole are urging parents to check their children's Halloween candy after one trick-or-treater was apparently given vodka Monday night.
Cops shared a photo of the Smirnoff green apple vodka nip on Twitter. They said a 6-year-old made the discovery while trick-or-treating on Haynes and Vane streets.
Walpole Police Chief John Carmichael said the child's parents notified police about the bottle Tuesday morning.
"It's alarming," he told WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Bernice Corpuz. "As a child, if you're looking at this bottle, it's just a small little bottle with an apple on the front of it, it looks like it could resemble something like fruit punch. A child seeing this bottle would unwittingly just open it and drink it without much of a problem."
He said his department has been trying to get word out to the community--the large number of homes in the neighborhood makes him think more children could have been given alcohol.
"There's likely some more people out there that may have experienced the same thing," he said. "We've done a reverse 911 for the Norfolk County Sheriff's Office. We've posted some alerts on social media, and even did some knock-and-talks in the neighborhood where this happened."
He said they had the source of the bottle narrowed down to the Pemberton Street-Robbins Road neighborhood, but not to a specific house.
Chief Carmichael said that, if they're caught, the person responsible could face charges.
"Essentially, this is procuring alcohol to a minor," he said. "Obviously, we'd have to show that they had some intent to do that, but just knowing that this alcohol ends up in a child's bag, I think there is some ill intent there."
They're asking any parent who makes a similar discovery to contact police.
"Right now, what we want to do is just make sure that parents out there do inspect the candy, inspect their child's bags that they did during trick-or-treating last night and just make sure there's nothing in there that shouldn't be," said the Chief.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Bernice Corpuz reports
