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  • 2001-10-24 (xsd:date)
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  • Did Terrorists Purchase Large Quantities of Halloween Candy in 2001? (en)
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  • Examples: [Collected via e-mail, October 2001] Origins: If Halloween hadn't already been ruined in 2001 by rumors of terrorist attacks at shopping malls, this incident further worked to kill it. Even in calmer times, Halloween is subject to perennial tales of evildoers who put razor blades and poison in candy distributed to innocent trick-or-treaters, and with the current heightened fears of terrorist attacks, these types of rumors are bound to flourish. So, if an Arab is spotted purchasing large amounts of candy before Halloween, he's going to be tagged as a potential terrorist out to poison our children. It is true that the FBI investigated the cash purchase of large quantities of candy from Costco stores in Hackensack and Wayne, New Jersey, on Wednesday, October 18, and that the purchaser was taken into federal custody for immigration law reasons, but no information was made publicly available indicating that the purchaser was a terrorist or had any intent of causing harm. As FBI spokesperson Sandra Carroll explained at the time: Moreover, customers' purchasing large amounts of candy that time of year was not necessarily so unusual by itself as to be cause for alarm, the Bergen Record reported. [A] Costco official, who declined to be identified, said such large purchases from the chain of wholesale grocery and household goods stores are not uncommon. Of course, the legendary form of this incident (i.e., the assumption that the purchaser was an Arab out to poison thousands of children with tainted Halloween candy) posits that a terrorist, knowing full well that nearly everyone in the U.S. was on the lookout for unusual activity in the aftermath of 9/11, not only clumsily purchased a huge amount of candy in open fashion, but foolishly brought even more suspicion down upon himself by using phony Costco cards instead of spending a few dollars more elsewhere. Sure enough, the FBI reported a few days later that: We may never hear a complete resolution of this matter due to Immigration and Naturalization Service confidentiality rules, but most likely this was simply a case of someone with marginal immigration status operating a business which involved buying candy in large quantities at low prices and re-selling it to distributors or through retail outlets. (News reports a few days later stated that the FBI had accounted for all of the candy and that local police had determined it was bought 'for resale purposes.') Scare stories prompted by similar incidents proved equally baseless: Sam's Club routinely destroys all edible products returned to it, so candy that had been brought back for a refund would not have been returned to the shelves. (en)
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