Oh, Halloween, you’re nothing like the original holiday. But that’s okay(ish). Because thanks to our socioeconomic ideologies, we’ve found several ways to capitalize on the holiday and enhance the absolute best part of it all—the mass consumption of candy. There’s nothing like knocking on people’s doors, asking for candy, and coming home with a full pillowcase or basket of sugary treats. And we all know that there is an unspoken hierarchy to Halloween candy.

There’s the good stuff: King Size Snickers, Twizzler Pull n’ Peels, and AirHeads. You’ve got the candy bars you’re willing to trade: maybe that Three Musketeers Bar or Milky Way. And don’t forget the candy you give to your younger brother because he doesn’t know the difference between a delicious Reese’s peanut butter cup and a not-so-thrilling Mounds bar yet.

Then there’s the candy that your parents suspect has been tampered with. Though we’d rather enjoy our candy without fear that someone has done something malicious to it, we can’t. There are some creeps out there who delight in doing it. Here are the top 10 creepiest things people have done to kids’ Halloween candy.

10 Milk Dud Bullets

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It’s bad enough eating Milk Duds that get impossibly stuck to your molars, but finding bullets where your candy was supposed to be is probably worse.

Back in 2014, a mother from Ohio discovered bullets in her 4-year-old son’s boxes of Milk Duds. What made this an even more troublesome discovery was that her son’s preschool had handed them out during a Trick-or-Treat event. And they were certainly not duds. There were three rounds, all .22 caliber.

Though the school didn’t have anything to tell the press about the incident, they were not the ones who brought in the bullet-filled candy boxes. Parents brought in the candy from home, which means this is either a sick prank or a scary message. 

Whatever the case, it was not a mistake.

9 Something to Snicker About

States one by one are legalizing marijuana for recreational use. But before the prohibition on pot was lifted, people had to resort to clever ways of transferring drugs from dealer to user. One dealer from Hercules, California thought of the perfect plan: transport them in Snickers candy bar wrappers.

Great idea!

Unfortunately, if you are attempting to mail said marijuana, totaling five ounces, and you get the address and postage wrong, your plan can backfire. Call this one unintentional, but any mysterious appearance of drugs in an edible substance is creepy.

As the letter was left stranded at the post office, the worker decided to hand out the Snickers bars to kids. And that’s how four weed Snickers bars ended up in someone’s Trick-or-Treat bag.

Police noted that the Snickers bars were so perfectly resealed that anyone could have mistaken the “candy” for actual candy. Nobody did, though, obviously. When you opened the wrapper, you found marijuana buds wrapped tightly in a plastic baggy. And I’m pretty sure it didn’t smell like chocolate.

The post office worker was not charged for being an unintentional drug dealer to minors.

8 Sticking it to Your Cheek

Another 2014 Halloween candy horror story, a young boy from Spokane, Washington found a rusty nail in his Halloween candy. But it’s not like he was pulling apart his candy. No, Halloween candy is not an arts and crafts project. 

He was eating it. 

Yes, he bit down on the nail, and yes, it poked his cheek. Fortunately, he was not seriously injured, and he did not get tetanus. However, I’d personally be terrified of biting into a piece of candy from then on. 

The mother of the young boy’s friend proceeded to open up the rest of his Trick-or-Treat candy and found several other pieces of metal inside them. These included nails, staples, and what looked to be watch parts.

7 Arsenic and Old Laced Halloween Candy

Halloween is for kids, maybe high school teenagers, but definitely for kids. So when we see that person who looks questionably too old to be trick-or-treating, a part of us judges them hard. How dare they take the candy away from the children!

But it’s not like we ever do anything about it. Unless you’re Helen Pfeil.

Helen Pfeil had been passing out candy to young kids all day, but when she started seeing people who were too old to be trick-or-treating, namely the 14-16-year-olds, she got a little too wrapped up in a “practical joke.”

Pfeil took a dog biscuit, some steel wool, and ant buttons (ant trap poison), wrapped it up like a candy bar, and handed it out to a total of 12 teenagers. Five of the candies were discovered that evening.

When confronted by police she swore she meant it as a joke; there was supposed to be nothing malicious about it. But the judge had her admitted to a hospital for a psychological examination. He states that he didn’t understand how someone with reason could poison children as a joke.

6 The Parent Tax on Halloween Backfires

Your candy isn’t yours until after your parents sift through it. That’s just how it goes. They reach in, look for the best things, and take them. It is the mommy and daddy tax. But as seemingly unfair as it is, we’d never wish ill on them.

But I guess this one is karma?

Salinas, California, 2013, a mother was eating some of her daughter’s Trick-or-Treat candy when she started to feel some curious side effects. It started as anxiety and then quickly changed to euphoria. After feeling ill, she checked the candy wrapper for its ingredients. She notices a small hole in the wrapper that wouldn’t normally be there.

She checked herself into the hospital where the doctor told her she was tripping on LSD.

The woman didn’t suffer any long-term side-effects following the incident but had it been her daughter, that may have been another story. The lesson here is to always let your parents take the Halloween candy tax; they double as taste-tester.

5 Mystery Pills

After a fun Halloween night in Lloydminster, Canada, two children found pills in their candy. One had a full blister pack of pills. The other found an individual pill after biting into his Snickers bar. Though reports didn’t include what kind of pill it was, its markings, “APO,” indicated that it was a prescription of some kind. When the parents looked at the Snickers wrapper, it was evident that someone had tampered with it.

4 Nightmare Ingredients

Halloween candy tastes so good, but the ingredients that go into it are not. No, we’re not talking about caramel, chocolate, or even high fructose corn syrup. We’re talking about far worse ingredients.

If you were given instructions to make some of your favorite Halloween candy, it might include the preservative TBHQ. TBHQ, also known as Tertiary butylhydroquinone is a byproduct of butane; it is essentially lighter fluid.

The substance’s antioxidant properties are great for preventing the discolorization of candy that contains iron. But for humans, it’s been shown to cause behavioral problems and cancer. Preserves your food, but not you.

Of course, the FDA regulates TBHQ so we don’t exceed dangerous levels in what we eat. But if you ask me, it shouldn’t even be there, to begin with. 

3 Meth-Coated Candy

In 2018, a couple reported feeling ill after ingesting their children’s Halloween candy. The Sour Patch Kids had seemed fine before they opened the package, but it was obvious that they were not fine. The candy ended up testing positive for meth. Thank goodness their kids didn’t eat any of it.

2 This Candy Will Get You Going

Meet William V. Shyne, a quiet dentist from Fremont, California. On Halloween 1959, he handed out 450 pieces of candy to Trick-or-Treaters—that happened to be heart-shaped candy-coated laxatives. No one knows why he did it. But if he was out to make these kids sick, he succeeded.

Thirty kids fell ill. Parents traced the candy back to the man living at 4844 Norris Road, who was none other than Shyne himself. When Shyne found out the police were looking for him, he skipped town. Police arrested his good friend Hazel Engelby, who was handing out candy with him that night.

Shyne eventually turned himself in on November 11. He was charged with “unlawful dispensing of drugs” and “outrage of public decency.” The court dropped the drug dispensing charges and let Engelby off the hook. Shyne still faced a $500 fine and spent six months behind bars.

A few years later, he was arrested for insurance fraud and spent two months in county jail. Shyne passed away in 2007, but he left a legacy of laced Halloween candy that would haunt us to this day.

1 The Candy Man

Dr. Shyne may have started the laced Halloween candy trend, but this next guy made the idea of getting dangerous Halloween candy in your bag terrifying.

On October 31, 1974, Ronald O’Bryan tragically gave his five children Pixie sticks laced with cyanide. Ronald’s eight-year-old son, Timothy, was the only one to consume the poisoned Halloween candy. 

Timothy died not soon after.

No one saw Ronald lace the candy. But when investigators discovered that he had recently taken out life insurance policies on the kids, they made a critical connection. The court found him guilty of murder. Ronald received the death penalty via lethal injection. He was executed in 1984.

When you think of Halloween, what candy comes to mind? For many people, it’s candy corn. Over 35 million pounds of the sugary triangles are sold in October alone. It’s one of the most iconic autumn candies and has been in existence for over 100 years. In fact, candy corn is not much younger than one of the oldest candies around—Necco Wafers.

Adults and kids alike have enjoyed the sweetness of candy corn since the late 19th century. It’s claimed that a man named George Renninger invented the candy in the 1880s. George worked for the Wunderle Candy Company, which began selling the candy. Eventually, the recipe was picked up by the Goelitz Candy Company (which is now Jelly Belly Candy Company), and as they say—sweet history was made.

Love it or hate it, let’s take a look at ten things you might not know about this classic Halloween candy.

10 Candy Corn Production Was Hard Work

Before automation, making candy corn was a very difficult process. The candy has three layers—white, orange, and yellow. The ingredients were heated until they were melted, then the hot liquid was poured into buckets. Employees would have to walk with these heavy buckets and hand-pour the liquid into kernel-shaped molds. Since candy corn is multi-layered, the employees would have to repeat this process three times.

It was such hard work that candy corn was only made for several months out of the year. Now that the process is automated, candy corn is made all year.^[1]

9 Candy Corn Contains Bug Secretions

Candy corn has ingredients we all expect, like sugar, corn syrup, and artificial flavor. But have you heard that it also contains bug secretions? The smooth coating on the outside of candy corn is made from lac-resin. Lac-resin is an insect secretion from lac bugs (but not the actual bug itself). These red parasites secrete a resin to protect themselves, which is then scraped up and used to give candy corn its shiny look. You haven’t noticed this on the ingredient list because it’s probably labeled as “confectioners glaze.”

Don’t give it too much thought! Lac-resin is in a lot of stuff, plus bug consumption is not that unusual in many places around the world.^[2]

8 Candy Corn Has a Variety of Interesting Flavors

Candy corn is best known for its sweet vanilla and honey flavor. Over 100 years later, new flavors have been introduced—some tasty, and some just downright strange.

There are the traditional flavors, like S’mores Candy Corn, Harvest Corn, and Caramel Apple Corn. But if you want to take it up a notch, there are also really unusual flavors, like Brach’s Tailgate Candy Corn or Thanksgiving Dinner Candy Corn. The Tailgate mix includes flavors like hot dogs, hamburgers, and popcorn. Thanksgiving Dinner is also made with flavors you wouldn’t expect, like turkey, green beans, cranberry sauce, and coffee. According to one reviewer, the green bean flavor was “like mowing the lawn with your mouth open.” If you can handle the Harry Potter Bertie Botts beans, then these candy corn flavors might be right up your alley.^[3]

7 You Can Make Your Own Giant Candy Corn

Humans have always had a fascination with making things bigger and better. For instance—the World’s Largest Rocking Chair or the World’s Largest Frying Pan. So, why not try to make a piece of candy corn as big as possible? It’s already been done with the World’s Largest Chocolate Bar and the World’s Largest Candy Cane. Surprisingly, as of now, there are no Guinness World Records for candy corn.

That didn’t stop some YouTubers from trying! There are videos on YouTube with instructions for making giant candy corn at home. With a lot of sugar and patience, you could go for the world record yourself and impress all your friends.

If that sounds like too much effort, Jelly Belly now offers a giant version of their candy corn for purchase. This version is about three times the size of their regular candy corn and has chocolate, vanilla, and cinnamon flavors.^[4]

6 Candy Corn Caused the Biggest Candy Factory Fire Ever

So, 1950 was a bad year for candy corn. On September 9, 1950, while preparing for the Halloween season, the Goelitz Confectionery in Midland Park, New Jersey, caught fire. One of the kettles used to heat the candy corn ingredients caught fire and caused the biggest candy factory fire in history. Thankfully, all 12 workers managed to get out unharmed, but the fire kept burning.

The factory was a block long, and nearby residents had to hose down their homes to keep them cool. It took days before the fire was finally out. There were thousands of onlookers, and the Goelitz company lost 2000 pounds (907 kilograms) of candy corn that year.^[5]

5 Kids Fell Ill after Consuming Candy Corn in 1950

Also, during Halloween in 1950, kids across the county were getting sick with bad diarrhea and skin rashes. It was Halloween, so of course, kids were eating more candy than usual. But it was making them sick. These symptoms were eventually linked to the consumption of Orange Dye No.1.

Back in 1950, Orange Dye No. 1 was used as a food coloring in many products—like candy corn and even hot dogs. Orange Dye No. 1 is considered a “coal-tar” dye (basically, it is derived from byproducts of processed coal). It also contains benzene, which is toxic. Rightfully so, this dye ended up getting delisted from the FDA.^[6]

4 There’s Candy Corn Flavored Beer and Pizza

Move over pumpkin spice, candy corn is the new kid on the block! For many years now, a number of breweries have been experimenting with candy corn flavors. Pumpkin is always a classic, but it’s a fun idea to experiment with new, seasonal flavors. Urban Growler Brewing in Minnesota brews their Candy Corn Imperial Cream Ale with 65 pounds (29.5 kilograms) of the sweet stuff. And the Mason Jar Brewing Company in California named their version the Candy Cornholio. Candy corn, plus beer—why not?

Candy corn in beer might sound excellent to some, but candy corn on pizza? Back in 2017, a Twitter user decided to bake their pizza with an additional topping—candy corn. After posting it online, the colorful candy corn pizza went viral and sparked a debate even more lively than pineapple on pizza. Several chefs, including Giada De Laurentiis and Curtis Stone, even tried it on the Today Show. Overall, the consensus was that candy corn definitely does NOT belong on pizza. And 99% of amateur chefs would agree. Let’s leave that viral trend back in 2017.^[7]

3 Generation X Loves Candy Corn the Most

Generation X is any person born between 1965 and 1980. As it turns out, this generation loves candy corn more than any other—although it is a close race. In 2020, the National Confectioner’s Association reported that 58% of Gen X’ers enjoy the candy. Right behind them are the Baby Boomers at 56%.

It is also reported that California is the state that purchases the most candy corn. So if you’re a Gen X’er from California? Chances are pretty good that this is your favorite Halloween treat.^[8]

2 Candy Corn Has Been Deep-Fried

For those that don’t like candy corn, maybe you would like it better wrapped in crescent dough and deep fried. Everything else gets deep-fried (deep-fried Twinkie, anyone?), so it’s only reasonable that candy corn does too. But is this only available at the state fair? Nope. In fact, there are plenty of recipes to try at home. Some use crescent dough; others use Bisquick or Funfetti pancake mix.

The original creator is Amy Erickson, who writes the blog, Oh, Bite It. She decided to create the gooey, sugary, fried treat because she had a plethora of leftover candy corn. As with anything related to candy corn, reactions were split. Depending on who you ask, it might be the best thing ever… or a step too far.^[9]

1 Candy Corn Wasn’t Always Associated with Halloween

This quintessential Halloween candy wasn’t actually created with that intent. Before it was known as candy corn, it was called “Chicken Feed” and sold as penny candy. Over 130 years ago, a large part of the population was rural and worked in agriculture. In order to market to this demographic, candies looked like pumpkins, turnips, and corn. Did you know that if you stack up candy corn, it looks like corn on the cob?

Before we had the help of machines, candy corn was only produced several months out of the year, typically in the fall. It wasn’t until after WWII that candy corn really became known as a Halloween favorite. Sugar rations were ended after the war, and trick-or-treating became a big deal. At that point, candy corn was prepackaged, making it easy to hand out. Plus, just look at it—its colors of white, yellow, and orange give it a festive Halloween flair.

Today, candy corn ranks up there as one of the most popular Halloween candies. Love it or hate it, It’s a favorite that’s here to stay! ^[10]