Upstate NY Report of Needle in Halloween Candy was a Hoax

Police in Scotia have updated a story from Halloween night after a woman reported a needle was placed in Halloween candy that was handed out during Trick-or-Treating in the town about 15-miles from Albany.

According to Police, the woman who reported the incident has now been arrested and charged with reporting a false incident.

Police say the woman, 27-year-old Christi Hosier of Schenectady, posted on social media that she had discovered the needle in her child's candy on Halloween night. The incident was posted on the "Scotia Glenville Current Events" Facebook page, according to WGRB TV in Albany. Police say, shortly after the post was made, she filed a report with the Scotia Police Department.

According to Scotia Police, Hosier was arrested on a charge that she falsely reported the incident and that after an investigation, she allegedly admitted that she placed the needle in the candy bar and that she had not gone trick-or-treating as she had originally claimed. Hosier was arrested on Monday, November 3, 2025, and she was issued an appearance ticket to reappear in Scotia Village Court at a later date.

The urban legend of tainted Halloween candy started in the 1970s, after a father killed his son by putting poison in pixie sticks in order to collect on his life insurance policy.

According to Wikipedia, Ronald Clark O'Bryan (October 19, 1944 – March 31, 1984), nicknamed The Candy Man, The Man Who Killed Halloween and The Pixy Stix Killer, was an American man convicted of killing his eight-year-old son Timothy (April 5, 1966 – October 31, 1974) on Halloween 1974 with a potassium cyanide-laced Pixy Stix that was ostensibly collected during a trick or treat outing. O'Bryan poisoned his son in order to claim life insurance money to ease his own financial troubles, as he was $100,000 in debt. O'Bryan also distributed poisoned candy to his daughter and three other children in an attempt to cover up his crime; however, neither his daughter nor the other children ate the poisoned candy. He was convicted of capital murder in June 1975 and sentenced to death. He was executed by lethal injection in March 1984.

In 2023, sociologist Joel Best of the University of Delaware studied reports of tampered Halloween candy dating back to 1958. He found no credible case of a stranger randomly handing out poisoned candy to kill children. Still, parents are reminded to check their kids candy before allowing them to enjoy the treats.