Large candy purchases investigated by FBI

Bergen NJ Record ^ | October 20, 2001 | MITCHEL MADDUX and PETER POCHNA

[spycatcher]

The FBI said Friday that it is investigating the cash purchase of "large quantities" of candy from Costco stores in Hackensack and Wayne.

"We have been advised and we are looking into the incident of a gentleman buying large quantities of candy," said Sandra Carroll, an FBI spokeswoman in Newark.

Carroll declined to identify the purchaser, but indicated that he is in federal custody for immigration law reasons not related to the purchase of the candy.

"I cannot comment on INS detainees," Carroll said.

Carroll said it would be premature to draw conclusions about the purchaser's intent for the candy, which agents had not found by Friday night. She declined to describe the candy.

"We have no evidence or information for us to suspect there is any reason to cancel scheduled events," Carroll said when asked if the FBI had concerns about the safety of Halloween. "However, the public is encouraged to remain alert but calm."

Hackensack police took a report from Costco about the candy purchase at the Hackensack store at 11:40 a.m. Wednesday. The police then contacted the FBI.

"They told us to stay out of it," said Hackensack Police Chief Charles "Ken" Zisa.

Zisa said the FBI had already learned about the purchase. A local Costco manager had reported the incident to corporate headquarters, near Seattle, and had sent a videotape from a store security camera, Zisa said.

An official at Costco's corporate headquarters said Friday night that no one was available to comment on the matter. Another Costco official, who declined to be identified, said such large purchases from the chain of wholesale grocery and household goods stores are not uncommon.

Kerry Gill, a spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in Newark, said he could not discuss the case because of confidentiality policies.

[Le-Roy]

Sabertooth painted a scenario in #28 that I would like to see discussed by medicos.

Would candy-bars injected w/smallpox be an effective medium for transmission?

[Snowy]

I am advising everyone I know to not buy any candy for halloween, and not allow their children to accept any, even if "it's from someone we know", since the contamination can occur at the retail level.

One of those Sam's stores is in our area. I heard this incident discussed on a local talk radio show. My husband and I have decided to buy our kids' halloween candy from a small grocery store chain, and throw out whatever loot they get from trick or treating. It doesn't sound like a harmless incident. I'm wondering how they tainted the candy...

[Snowy]

What was Bert doing in those photos seen on some Isalmaicist supporter's street posters?

Good catch. I agree that Bert was a signal. What other plausible explanation could there be?

[cake_crumb]

"Point taken but don't put it past the bastards to hand out poisoned candy to the kids. I couldn't imagine sept 11 either"

Ever since this anthrax stuff started, I've been thinking a lot about a rumer circulating among the Palestinian population: Last year, they were saying that the Israelis were selling leather belts to Palestinians. They said the belts make you sick and give you a bad rash. They didn't stop buying the belts though. The skin form of anthrax is most easy to get from animal hides and hair. The chemicals used in tanning kill anything that is on the hides.

At the same time, there was a rumor circulating that the evil Israelis were air-dropping poisoned candy to kill Palestinian kids.

So I've been wondering about Halloween candy. It might just be paranoia. Mabe I'm making something out of nothing...but on the other hand, what if somebody who really knew something and let it slip and it became that ridiculus rumor?

[SauronOfMordor]

That's why a manager might approve a large cash sale rather than have customers walk out the door. Probably just thought they owned a candy store.

Any candy store owner doing $35,000 volume is going to buy direct from the distributor and have the truck deliver it, NOT go to a retailer!

[Snowy]

The more I think about this, the more I get worried. I'm not worried about Anthrax, but when the evil ones try to mess with my kids, then that is a different story. Could someone who is more learned about bioterrorism please offer clues as to what these Arab men could have done to this candy? I can only speculate, but I do not have a background in science.

[AMDG&BVMH]

Please do let us know if you find it. The part that makes this threat credible is returning candy to the shelves, and I would like to know if actual news of that exists. Many thanks!

[spycatcher]

I guess that's why alarm bell went off, if that $$ figure is correct.

[Uncle George]

The murderers did just what they intended to do: For a measley 35.000 dollars they showed their "POWER" by effectually CANCELLING Halloween for the greatest Country in the world and probably costing American retailers BILLIONS of dollars in lost sales. This subhuman bunch of vipers learned their lessons well from our commie lib universaties huh?

[cake_crumb]

Random testing in stores? There's also a chance that the plot was foiled with the arrest of these two...I wish we knew what happened to the candy they bought

[FR_addict]

Bumping this one for parents.

[spectre]

"What happened to the candy they bought"...

Maybe they said they were buying the candy to hand out to the kiddies at "The Mall"?

Now there's a comforting thought.....NOT!

sw

[freeperfromnj]

Excellent catch. I thought the same thing. There definitely is an objective behind those posters with ernie (also the pokemon posters which got little coverage). Let's not forget the children cannot take Cipro. I sure hope the feds are investigating every angle of this and not dismissing any possibilities. We must be 10 steps ahead of these people

[Madame Dufarge]

Any candy store owner doing $35,000 volume is going to buy direct from the distributor and have the truck deliver it, NOT go to a retailer!

My thought, also.

Unless the plan was to eventually return the candy, some of it tainted. Buying it from Sam's or Cosco and then returning it would increase the odds of it being more widely distributed among the public.

The only thing that has me puzzled is, why such HUGE amounts of candy. Returning $15,000 worth of candy at once would surely set off alarm bell. Or maybe not.

[FR_addict]

What's the best way to get this to Fox News? Parents need to be forewarned.

[FR_addict]

There was also a story posted here on FR this week about a uy (middle-eastern) buying $2700.00 worth of candy-bars from a Sam's store, then brought them back.

The store had the health dept. check out the candy, they couldn't find any noticeable problems, so they put the candy back on the shelf.

I missed the original post. What were they thinking? They should never have taken the candy back.

[Alma 2616]

One of the terrorists was in our town for a period of a couple of months (flight school I think) and had roommates still at large.

Try this scenario. Truckload of candy purchased, other smaller purchases done all over the country. Some people have living rooms full of boxes of candy, maybe telling neighbors it's for a fund raiser? Some hypodermic work is done. This takes weeks or months, but can be done by women and older children. Then a kind of inverse shoplifting takes place. Packages with tiny pinholes are sneaked into stores. Others are returned without receipt or even with receipt. Some are donated to schools and charitable organizations. It only takes one bad Muslim per large community to spread around a heck of a lot of bad candy, but it would take a lot of organization to get the timing right. I would expect to see some people affected by now unless the bad candy is all distributed more or less at the last minute.

Whatever, the solution is simple. Homemade or expensive, quality candy only this year. We will be throwing out anything storebought after about the middle of August. And this will give us an opportunity to go back to old fashioned candy making, not a bad thing anyway. I've never done a taffy pull!

Fuzzy Pink Niven's law applies anyway: NEVER WASTE CALORIES--DON'T EAT CHEAP CANDY.

Alma 26:16 Verse of the day Alma 3:26-- "And in one year were thousands and tens of thousands of souls sent to the eternal world, that they might reap the rewards according to their works, whether they were good or whether they were bad, to reap eternal happiness or eternal misery, according to the spirit which they listed to obey, whether it be a good spirit or a bad one." SEE YOU IN CHURCH & PRAY FOR OUR PRESIDENT, MILITARY--AND OUR ENEMY

[Brian Kopp DPM]

A little basics on viral disease transmission. Many viral diseases are transmitted via fomites:

fomite

SYLLABICATION: fo·mite
PRONUNCIATION: fmt
NOUN: An inanimate object or substance that is capable of transmitting infectious organisms from one individual to another.
ETYMOLOGY: Back-formation from New Latin fmits, pl. of Latin fmes, tinder, from fovre, to warm. See dhegwh- in Appendix I.

In other words, you touch something, get the virus on your hand, then touch you face, mouth, nose or other mucus membrane.

Candy wrappers would be a perfect fomite because the act of handling the candy wrapper occurs immediately before the contact with the mouth.

In other words, no need to inject anything.

Just a light dusting of smallpox virus in the form or a powder. If done correctly it would be undetectable.

And unlike anthrax, which requires thousands of huge bacterial spores be inhaled into the lungs, relatively few microscopic smallpox viruses would be required. And nasal exposure would be sufficient to cause full blown infection, whereas nasal exposure with anthrax is relatively harmless.

No trick or treating for my kids this year.

• Contact with fomites:
  1. Indirect contact transmission is a form of contact transmission where transmission occurs from a reservoir via inanimate objects.
  2. These objects generally are referred to as fomites.
  3. Fomites are basically almost anything an infected individual (or reservoir) can touch, upon which can be left a residue of contagious pathogen.
• Exceptions include the various inanimates referred to as vehicles:
  1. food
  2. air
  3. liquids
• Typically it is more difficult to avoid indirect contact transmission than it is to avoid direct contact transmission.
• A certain degree of organismal durability may be necessary to survive passage on a fomite.
• The best way to prevent indirect contact transmission is by:
  1. avoiding contact with fomites
  2. avoiding contact of hands with mucous membranes especially when handling or potentially handling fomites
  3. the use of barriers when handling fomites
  4. disinfecting fomites before handling

[Brian Kopp DPM]

I started a new thread on this question:

SMALL POX AND HALLOWEEN CANDY- A short primer on viral disease transmission