Furious San Diego parents confront adults who allegedly gave their kids psychedelic gummies instead of Halloween candy

San Diego police are investigating a Halloween incident in which two fathers claimed that their children picked up psychedelic drugs instead of candy from a porch in Ocean Beach. The homeowner was later confronted about giving the children the packages, which identified the drugs as psilocybin mushroom gummies, but the homeowner denied leaving them outside.

Frank Cary and Cameron Hunter said that they were trick-or-treating with their children and several other neighborhood kids on Saturday night when their children approached a house with a bowl containing what they believed was candy on the porch. The children returned with what appeared to be candy, but Cary claimed he noticed something unusual about the packaging.

“I noticed the picture had a giraffe and words that looked like they were melting,” Cary told NBC 7. “I took it out of his hand and saw that there was a dosage on the front of it. Five grams, [then I] flipped it around and read ‘psilocybin mushrooms.”

The parents confronted the homeowner

The parents then checked the rest of their children’s candy before returning to the house, where the bowl was still outside. Part of the encounter was recorded on Hunter’s phone as the parents confronted a woman about the psychedelic gummies.

Two days after Halloween, NBC 7 spoke with Shawn Barger, the homeowner, who disputed the parents’ claims. Barger claimed that his wife had answered the door to the parents and that she had been confused by the accusations about the gummies. He denied being the person who put the bowl of gummies on his porch, claiming it was too expensive a purchase to leave outside.

“I looked it up, and they’re like 20 bucks a piece,” he said. “It’s probably like $300 worth of gummies. I don’t have $300 to, like, spend to make myself look bad, you know what I mean. It’s ridiculous.”

San Diego Police are investigating

The San Diego Police Department also confirmed that it had received a report about a home potentially distributing drugs to children. Investigators have not yet confirmed whether the gummies actually contain illegal drugs; Lt. Cesar Jimenez said that testing would be necessary to determine whether a crime had been committed and whether charges would be brought against the person responsible for putting the gummies in the bowl.

The investigation into whether the gummies contain illegal drugs and how they ended up on the porch is ongoing.

“Looking back in retrospect, of course I wouldn’t stop at that house, but they had a bucket of candy,” Hunter told NBC 7. Cary added that “one would assume [the bowl] was open for kids to trick-or-treat at.”