New London Police urge St. Patrick's Day Parade attendees to throw out candy

NEW LONDON, Wis. (WFRV) -- Due to multiple reports of illness following eating candy thrown at the New Dublin St. Patrick's Day Parade, New London Police are recommending that anyone who attended the event to throw out their candy.

Lisa Buehring took her three sons to the parade. All three started showing symptoms of some sort of reaction later Saturday night.

"They ended up with a rash and swelling and all kinds of redness and it was scary," she told Local Five.

She reported the reactions to police, and spent the night watching the boys. All of their symptoms went away by the following morning.

Police say that Lisa's report was not the only one they received about reactions to possibly tainted candy.

"We also received at least one or two calls from other people saying the same thing and from there it's grown into getting a few more calls throughout the day now, people saying this is happening to our children," said Sgt. Earl Ruckdashel of the New London Police Department.

Police say that symptoms that have been reported include rashes, tingling, facial numbness, and flu-like symptoms.

One two-year-old was even taken to the hospital with flu-like symptoms.

Although all reports of reactions appear legitimate, police cannot yet connect the reactions with candy, or with the parade.

"I do believe that the people that are reporting their symptoms that it happened - just right now we have no way to confirm whether it's actually related to any type of candy being tainted or associated with the parade at all," Sgt. Ruckdashel said.

Police are asking anyone who still has candy from the parade to throw it away, or bring it to the New London Police Station to aid in the ongoing investigation.