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Halloween candy collected in Rocky Mountain House suspected to be more trick than bad treat, RCMP say.
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But Mounties say they are still investigating a case of suspected candy tampering.
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After local preliminary tests done on doorstep-distributed candy suggested it may have been contaminated with the potentially deadly opioid, a more intensive investigation has now ruled out that or any other illegal drug, Mounties said Thursday.
“It comes from information from the RCMP drug lab which is much more intensive,” said Cpl. Troy Savinkoff.
“A presumptive positive can come when you test outside of the substance, that it could have been handled in the presence of fentanyl.”
But while none of those drugs were found on the dark, hard substance placed inside a candy package, RCMP are continuing to investigate it as illegal tampering, Savinkoff said.
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“Every year we get reports of candy being tampered with and often investigations can discount risks, but this one was quite strange,” he said.
He could not say how many homes the child cheated in, but said the route covers a large geographic area in the rural region 215 kilometers northwest of Calgary.
A parent alerted Mounties to the tampering after three pieces of suspicious material were found in an opened candy package.
Calgary police responded to a report from a woman that she found a sewing needle in the wrapper of a chocolate bar her child received while trick-or-treating on the same Halloween night. The child did not eat the chocolate and neither did he wash impair.
The child visited more than 100 homes in the Panorama Hills neighborhood, police said, as they continue to investigate whether the needle was intentionally placed.
BKaufmann@postmedia.com
Twitter: @BillKaufmannjrn
