Are you too old to go trick-or-treating?

That is a question some residents in Chesapeake, Virginia, will be asking this Halloween after the city passed an ordinance earlier this year capping the activity at age 14. That’s less restrictive than the previous ordinance, which warned people older than 12 could go to jail. But the city changed the rule after an outcry last year on social media turned Chesapeake into the butt of late-night television jokes.

Heath Covey, a spokesman for the city, which is about 13 miles from Norfolk, said the original ordinance was enacted in 1970, two years after a group of mischief-makers threw exploding fireworks into Halloween bags. Covey was a little hazy on the details (“It was a long time ago,” he said) but there were minor injuries, he recalled.


The 1970 ordinance stated that no one older than 12 was allowed to trick-or-treat and that anyone caught could be fined as much as $100, arrested and sent to jail for six months.

In the 49 years since, there have been no arrests for overage trick-or-treating, he said. Indeed the ordinance was little noticed until October 2018, when it started popping up on social media. Covey and his staff could not pinpoint where the criticism started. “It came from 16 different directions,” he said. But online critics derided the city on Twitter and Facebook, turning news of the ordinance — and everyone’s opinion about it — into a viral hit.

“It was embarrassing,” Covey said. “We were called names that would make you blush. It was huge. I talked to television and print reporters. I did an interview with a Ukrainian television station. It was everywhere and alarming.”

Even the late-night host Jimmy Kimmel mocked the city last year in a sketch, which was posted on Twitter. The actor Fred Willard played a small town sergeant who joked about locking up overage teens for life. (Twitter comments ranged from outrage to calling Chesapeake the “3rd most boring town in America.”)

After the hubbub, members of the City Council agreed to revisit the rules “to get back some balance” on the issue, Covey said. The topic was studied and discussed at council meetings. “Most of the online comments were from people who did not live here,” he said.


In March, Chesapeake was ready to act. The city passed a new ordinance that raised the trick-or-treating age to 14, saying anyone who was older than that could be guilty of a misdemeanor and fined $250. “Our police aren’t checking kids’ IDs for candy,” Covey said. Instead, he said, “our police are focused on drivers, to make sure our kids stay safe.”

On Oct. 1, Chesapeake posted the new rule on its Facebook page. The efforts though, have not stopped people online from posting about last year’s fracas.

“We are responding as fast as we can,” he said, with a sigh.