A house sitter in Southington who is accused of hiding mothballs in chocolate candies and leaving them out at a neighbor’s house told police she wanted to see if it would stop the neighbor’s dog from barking excessively, according to police.
Police said responded to a home on Whitlock Avenue on Dec. 23 after a resident called them about suspicious activity.
He told police he went to check on his dog when it started barking and saw a woman dressed in all black walking along his fence line on his side of the fence, then put a small round item on a tree stump in the yard, police said.
Then, as he was going back into his house, he saw a similar item on his back stairs.
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It looked like a cream-filled chocolate-covered candy, but it had a distinct odor and he found a mothball hidden inside, police said. He was concerned she was trying to feed it to his dog.
The woman initially denied knowing about it before letting officers look around in the backyard, where they found an identical item on the tree stump and seized it, police said.
The woman admitted to hiding a mothball inside a cream-filled chocolate-covered candy, police said, and she expressed frustration over the neighbor’s dog barking at all hours and decided to make a “treat” for the dog to see if he would “stop barking.”
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She told police she didn’t intend to hurt the dog, but wanted it to stop barking excessively.
The woman turned herself in to Southington police on Jan. 25 and has been charged with criminal attempt to commit cruelty to animals. She was released on a $1,000 non-surety bond and is due in court in February.
Mothballs can be poisonous. Poison Control warns that mothballs are pesticides and can be dangerous if swallowed. They urge people to store and use them out of the reach of children and pets. https://www.poison.org/articles/taking-your-woolies-out-of-mothballs
