Pills In Candy Sicken 4-Year-Old

TAMPA — James Gordon Shye Jr. got into his parents’ car at Tampa International Airport on Sunday morning, greeted his parents and asked his 4-year-old niece, Bailey Barzano, to give him a kiss.

But Bailey had dozed off in the back seat. His parents attributed it to her having a stomachache.

Shye then said he was hungry, and his stepfather handed him a package of Skittles candy that Bailey hadn’t finished.

Shye, a pharmacy technician, poured some of the candies into his hand and noticed “a distinctive, big green pill.” He says he found four pills in the packet.

He immediately realized his niece was lethargic because of what she had eaten in the package of Skittles.

“I said, ‘This is very serious.’ I said, ‘Go to the hospital now,’” said Shye, who lives in Fort Myers but is visiting his family in Homosassa.

Bailey was taken to University Community Hospital, where she spent the night and was released Monday.

“She is doing wonderful,” said Shye, 23. “She is better than normal.”

Investigators suspect the pills may be oxycodone, a potentially deadly prescription painkiller. The pills are to be analyzed by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Shye said the family thinks the Skittles came from the airport because no one can recall buying candy.

Bailey may have gotten the pack from an airport restroom.

While the family was waiting outside the baggage area for Shye, Bailey needed to use the bathroom. Her grandmother, Holly Ball, took her to the restroom, and Bailey was in the stall alone, Hillsborough County sheriff’s Maj. Harold Winsett said.

When they returned to their car, Bailey asked her grandfather, Jeffrey Ball, to open a 2.17-ounce Blue Tropical flavor package of Skittles. Each grandparent thought the other one had bought the Skittles for Bailey, Shye said.

Bailey told her grandmother the candy was “yucky” and wanted to spit it out. Holly Bell thought her granddaughter was chewing a flavor she didn’t like and gave her a drink to help wash it down, Shye said.

He said the family is certain the package had not been opened. Shye said he later found in the car a corner of the wrapper from where his stepfather had torn the package.

Bailey couldn’t tell deputies exactly where she found the bag of candy.

Blue Tropical flavor packages of Skittles aren’t sold at TIA, but investigators pulled all flavors from airport shelves as a precaution. There were no obvious signs of tampering or foreign substances, airport police said.

“We have nothing to indicate that this is anything other than an isolated incident,” Winsett said.

Investigators were trying to track down where the bag of Skittles was produced.

Jennifer Jackson-Luth, a spokeswoman for Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co., which makes Skittles, said deputies contacted the company Monday. In an e-mail to the Tribune, she said her company is “cooperating fully with their ongoing investigation.”

Shye said that with Halloween not that far off, it now will be hard to celebrate as tradition dictates.

“We might have to find a way to get around Halloween this year,” he said.

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