Needle found in New Jersey trick-or-treater's Tootsie Roll

RUNNEMEDE, New Jersey -- A New Jersey family is looking for answers after their 12-year-old daughter found needle in a piece of Halloween candy.

Charlene Wagoner wants her neighbors to be warned after daughter Lilyana discovered the two-inch sewing needle inside a Tootsie Roll.

"My main concern is just to make sure kids in the area know this is not a hoax," she said. "This is not a trick. It's not. It's for real."

The Wagoners had just returned to their house on the 500 block of Iva Court after trick-or-treating all around their Runnemede neighborhood.

"I was in the mood for a Tootsie Roll, and then I take it out and I open the wrapper," Lilyana said. "I try to split it in half because I wanted to save half for later. I realize I can't break it in half. I pull it, and I start to see the needle come out."

Lilyana immediately asked her mom what it was.

"It just came right out of the Tootsie Roll," Charlene said. "I took it out of her hand, and I was like, this is a sewing needle. And she got freaked out."

Charlene snapped photos of the needle right away. The family estimates they visited about 60 homes Halloween night.

Runnemede police confiscated all of Lilyana's candy. Now, an investigation is underway.

"I strongly suggest to parents that you go through children's candy," Runnemede Police Chief Paul Dailey said. "Examine it. Anything that looks open or partially opened, throw it out. We avoided a potential disaster here."

Police looked at all of Lilyana's candy and found no other pieces had been tampered with. They know of no other cases in Camden County.

Police said they will try to go door to door as they work to figure out where the tainted Tootsie Roll came from.