{"id":673228,"date":"2026-11-03T01:40:16","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T01:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/673228\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T01:40:16","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T01:40:16","slug":"gardai-investigating-reports-of-pins-found-in-halloween-trick-or-treat-sweets-in-co-donegal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/673228\/","title":{"rendered":"Garda\u00ed investigating reports of pins found in Halloween ‘trick or treat’ sweets in Co Donegal"},"content":{"rendered":"

GARDA\u00cd ARE INVESTIGATING reports of needles and pins being pushed into Halloween sweets in Co Donegal.<\/p>\n

Two separate Donegal parents have written about incidents in the Ballybofey-Stranorlar area on social media and have also spoken to local news outlet the Donegal Daily<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Savannah McDaid said on social media that her son was trick or treating in Stranorlar on Halloween night and remarked that it was a \u201cfun time for us until we came home\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"870868209_2504402546636459_1201227579135822953_n\"
\n Pin found in Halloween sweet Savannah McDaid \/ Facebook<\/p>\n

Savannah McDaid \/ Facebook \/ Facebook\n<\/p>\n

She said her son received loads of sweets but noted that her mother informed her of \u201cvideos going around about checking your kids\u2019 sweets\u201d.<\/p>\n

McDaid said she got a magnet and \u201cstarted to check all of his sweets to only find something I never thought I would find\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said there were a \u201ccouple of sweets and bars that stuck to the magnet\u201d and that when she opened them up, she found that a pin was hidden in the bars and sweets\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never thought I would ever find something so dangerous in a sweet given to children,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\"877609593_2504402606636453_2814333181209802775_n\"
\n Pin found in Halloween chocolate Pin found in Halloween sweet<\/p>\n

Pin found in Halloween sweet\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s terrible that kids can\u2019t go out trick or treating and have fun and enjoy the excitement of getting to eat their sweets at home, it\u2019s ruining the fun for the kids.<\/p>\n

\u201cI honestly don\u2019t know what is going on in this world today. it\u2019s a disgrace.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDaid told the Donegal Daily that \u201cnever in a million years did I think we would find something like this happening here\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Philippa Falls in nearby Ballybofey saw McDaid\u2019s post and decided to check on her own son\u2019s Halloween sweets as a result.<\/p>\n

She said that her son found a pin inside one of the chocolates he had received.<\/p>\n

\"876349005_10227433566304469_5796107710577482621_n\"
\n Philippa Falls holding pin she found in her son’s sweets\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI am horrified, gobsmacked and worried that someone could conceal something like this in a chocolate, which could potentially be fatal,\u201d she added, before imploring other parents to check through all the sweets and chocolates their children received.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Donegal Daily, Falls said it was an \u201cembroidery or sewing machine needle that was in the chocolate\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, local Sinn F\u00e9in councillor Dakota Nic Mheanman remarked that it was \u201cabsolutely horrible to see this happening\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe shouldn\u2019t have to be checking our kids\u2019 sweets, but please be cautious,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Nic Mheanman also said it was \u201cextremely worrying\u201d for there to be two reports of this type of incident in the local area.<\/p>\n

In a statement, a spokesperson for An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na said: \u201cGarda\u00ed received report of an incident which occurred on 31 October in the Ballybofey \/ Stranorlar area in Co Donegal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spokesperson added that \u201cenquiries are ongoing\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GARDA\u00cd ARE INVESTIGATING reports of needles and pins being pushed into Halloween sweets in Co Donegal. Two separate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59392,1485,21008,42,43,59391,40,38,41,39,285172],"class_list":["post-673228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-ballybofey","tag-donegal","tag-halloween","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-stranorlar","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-trick-or-treat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}