Alexandria police are looking for a man who pointed a gun at a group of 13- and 14-year-olds and demanded their Halloween candy.

The teens were able to run away from the would-be candy-snatcher unharmed, and the bandit got no sweets. But the holdup made Halloween a lot scarier than expected for a group of 12 youths, who were playing tag on a school playground when the man approached them.

Crystal Nosal, an Alexandria police spokeswoman, said that no adult was supervising the teens while they played on the 2600 block of Commonwealth Avenue about 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 31.

The teens described the gunman to police as a black man in his late teens or early 20s, about 5-foot-10, carrying a red-and-black backpack.

To add to the ghoulish effect, he was wearing a black ski mask.