RACHAEL SERAVALLI / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Monday, October 31, 2005 6:00 pm
Many parents certainly know well enough to check their kids’ candy — for safety reasons — before allowing them to dig in.
But it was a Lincoln grandmother who appears to have been on the prickly end of a dangerous Halloween deed.
Around 9 p.m. Monday, Sharon Nore, 68, popped a fun-size Butterfinger candy bar in her mouth, one of several her grandkids had collected during trick-or-treating that night, she said.
But she noticed something wasn’t right.
“You know how Butterfingers are rough? But I thought, ‘This is sticking me longer than it should.’ It wasn’t dissolving,” she said.
Nore pulled the culprit — an inch-long sewing needle — out of her mouth. She said the needle was completely buried in the bar.
“You couldn’t tell by the paper that it had been poked,” she said. “I just presumed myself that it could have been done on the production line.”
While she’s not sure how many houses the children visited, Nore said, her daughter only took the children to homes the family knew.
Officer Katherine Finnell said Nore’s grandchildren visited the areas of 21st and Calvert streets and the 3300 block of Woodshire Monday night, but they couldn’t remember exactly where they got the Butterfinger.
Nore told police she was not injured by the needle, Finnell said.
The investigation is ongoing, Finnell said, while officers try to pinpoint the house the candy came from and how the needle got there.
The family looked at the rest of the Butterfinger bars the children had collected to make sure no other objects were hidden inside, Nore said.
“I ate some of that, but I don’t think I’d ever eat another one like that on Halloween,” she said. “I think it’s a good thing to tell kids is just don’t pop them in your mouth. I’m sorry it happened, but I’m glad it happened to me and not a kid.”
Reach Rachael Seravalli at 473-7120 or at rseravalli@journalstar.com.