Stafford, Va. — It takes a dedicated deputy to work the Halloween late shift at the Stafford County Courthouse.
Officials here each year leave on the lights so parents and children can have their Halloween treats screened for harmful pins and needles – for free.
The process was simple Monday night. Deputy Charles Havasy dumped out the candy onto the conveyor belt and ran it through the X-ray machine at the courthouse entrance. While being screened, the individually wrapped candies appear on the adjacent computer monitor as little orange bits that look like candy corn. Darker blues that can appear on the monitor help to register metals and weapons.
The machine can’t detect chemicals or poisons, nor has it ever detected any harmful objects inside Halloween candies screened at the courthouse in the five years they’ve been screening candy.
So, has this candy screening been brought on by nothing more than a paranoid sugar rush?
“It’s not being paranoid. Do you lock your doors at night? You could say you’re being afraid when you do that, but you’re really just being prudent,” said Havasy.
The Halloween candy shift is a slow one. By 9 p.m. Monday only four children came with their parents to have their candy screened. With Halloween on a Monday this year, Havasy said he expected at most five or six families show up for the screening – down from the usual 15.
“This is good PR for the sheriff’s department, and if they come in citizens get to see what we do here,” said Havasy.
During regular weekday hours when the courthouse is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., courthouse services deputies do see their share of potentially harmful items brought into the judicial center, like knives and a 9mm handgun. Those who bring them in can be charged, but most are sent back to their car where they can store the banned item.
Three months ago officials took another step and banned cell phones from the courthouse after a juror was found while in the courtroom texting testimony to someone waiting outside the courtroom who was to take the stand next. Stafford’s courthouse was one of the last in the state to place restrictions on cell phones, said Havasy.
