Who put needles in Halloween sweets across Germany?

German police are currently investigating how needles ended up in Halloween sweets all over the country. Here’s what we know so far about who or what might be behind it: 

Where in Germany did people find needles in sweets?

Since Halloween, children and parents have been finding needles in chocolate bars and tiny screws in sweets gathered during trick-or-treating. Such cases have now been recorded far and wide across Germany.

In Duderstadt, Lower Saxony, an 11-year-old found a needle in a chocolate bar. In Höxter, North Rhine-Westphalia, a father found a piece of metal in an ice cream and in Pilsting, Bavaria, needles and screw-like objects were found in chocolate bars and gummy sweets, according to Tagesschau.

Multiple children have now also been injured while eating sweets which had been tampered with. In Neustadt-Glewe, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, a child suffered mouth injuries, and in Bremervörde, Lower Saxony, a 9-year-old girl injured her tongue on a five-centimetre needle embedded in a chocolate bar. On the island of Fehmarn, Schleswig-Holstein, children also reported spitting out winegums that tasted as if they had been coated with laundry detergent.

Alongside multiple cases in Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein, cases have been reported in Baden-Württemberg, Thuringia and Bremen. Cases have also been reported further afield, in Austria, Ireland, the UK and Canada.

An image of a needle found in a chocolate bar and shared by police in Hanover. (Image credit: Präparierte Süßigkeiten_Misburg_1 / PressePortal)

Who tampered with Halloween sweets in Germany?

This is not the first time that parents have found needles in Halloween sweets in Germany; there were similar cases recorded in 2025. Police in Essen currently believe an internet trend is behind the crime.

In the run-up to Halloween, many social media platforms were flooded with English-language videos explaining how to detect whether sweets had been tampered with. Speaking to WDR, a police spokesperson said these videos likely “inspired the perpetrators to carry out their acts” and that “a link to the internet trend is therefore likely”. 

Essen police also believe that perpetrators are unlikely to have given sweets to children directly, and instead left the tampered-with sweets at their front door for children to take, or went past other houses to drop them in front-door bowls.

As investigations continue, police have urged anyone who finds sweets that have been tampered with to report it and bring the sweets to a police station so they can be examined for fingerprints.