I recently presented my annual “Spooky Torts” powerpoint to my Torts class of the latest holiday litigation cases. At the time, I noted that the whole fear of razor blades in apples appears an urban legend. Well, give it enough time and someone will prove you wrong. That is the allegation of Waterbury, Connecticut police who say that Jason A. Racz, 37, put razor blades in candy bags of at least two trick-or-treaters.
Racz’ razor defense may not be particularly convincing to the average juror. According to police, “Racz explained that the razor blades were accidentally spilled or put into the candy bowl he used to hand out candy from.” However, police noted that he “provided no explanation as to how the razor blades were handed out to the children along with the candy.”
Racz is now charged with risk of injury to a minor, reckless endangerment and interfering with a police officer.
Notably, the tampering with Halloween candy is not a myth but exceptionally rare. The few times that it has happened, the tampering has involved largely poisons.
Depraved, to try to harm a child like that. How was it discovered – right away when he passed out the candy or later that night when parents checked the haul for safety?
When I was a kid there were stories, which we believed, of razor blades and Ex-Lax being put in Halloween treats. Nonetheless, we accepted and happily ate homemade items such as popcorn balls, cookies, apple cider and cinnamon-sugar donuts. One of my best memories is of an elderly neighbor lady giving me homemade gingerbread man with my name written on it in icing. Small town America, 1970s. Now it’s all packaged, sealed candy. Nobody has time to make anything. They don’t even have time to drive through the fast-food lane, but instead pay to have the junk delivered. What are people so busy with?
Amen. Now how do we repair the damage?
Sadly, not even packaged/sealed candy is proof against a determined poisoner. Poisons lethal to children in milligram doses can be injected with a syringe through a small hole in a candy wrapper.
Trick or treating is, sadly, best kept among neighbors well-known to each other. The days when it was safe to drive across town to let your kids load up on candy are long gone. Just as well… de-emphasizing candy at Halloween may prevent kids from being type 2 diabetics (or simply obese) later in life.
tell that to the parents who truck their kids over to the suburbs from the bad neighborhoods to collect the free boodle
apparently they’re not above running the risk for free snickers bars
Which is why poor kids often suffer from “diseases of affluence” such as early-onset diabetes, tooth decay, obesity and other scourges – parents who didn’t get the memo on “balanced meals” that SNAP was intended to allow them to buy.
Assuming that he did this, I hope he gets the severest punishment allowable.