The company that manufactured the marshmallow Easter egg a Santa Fe family says contained a razor blade has no plans for a recall while the family says it has hired a lawyer.

Necco candies does not plan a recall because no one at the company has seen the candy or even a picture of it, said Lory Zimbalatti, a spokeswoman for the company, which is based in Revere, Mass., outside Boston.

She also said Easter candy season is 90 percent complete, and the company has not received any other complaints. In addition, the company has metal detectors on its candy line and would have caught any metal objects during the manufacturing process, she said.

Likewise, Walgreens, where Anita Tapia says she bought the tainted candy, has no plans for taking the candy off the shelves at any stores other than the 1096 S. St. Francis Drive store -- where Tapia says she bought the candy -- said Carol Hively, a Walgreens spokeswoman.

"We haven't even seen a Walgreens receipt yet," Hively said.

The company pulled the candies from the one Santa Fe store as a matter of routine, Hively said.

Easter is a profitable time of year for candy sellers. The holiday is second only to Halloween in candy sales, according to the National Confectioners Association.

Santa Fe police Capt. Gary Johnson said Christopher Tapia Jr. refused to turn the candy over to police as evidence Tuesday, saying he wanted to wait until his lawyer had a chance to see the candy. The candy's packaging was an egg carton wrapped in cellophane, he said.

Police hope to inspect the candy today, Johnson said. "The sooner the better," he said.

Christopher Tapia Jr. told police the packaging did not show any outward signs of tampering, Johnson said.

Reached on her husband's cell phone, Anita Tapia referred all questions about the case to her lawyer, Kathleen Lucero of Española. Anita Tapia said her son refers all questions to Lucero as well.

Anita Tapia told The New Mexican on Monday that she was thinking about filing a lawsuit, but during a brief conversation Tuesday with her husband, Christopher Tapia Sr., he said that wasn't true.

Lucero said she plans to meet with the Tapia family as soon as possible to discuss the incident and would contact The New Mexican when family members were ready to discuss the incident.

Anita Tapia recently underwent knee surgery and is feeling overwhelmed by the candy incident, Lucero said.

In the meantime, Zimbalatti said the company plans to conduct a quality-control investigation at the Necco factory. Necco stands for New England Confectionary Co. Started in 1847, it is the oldest multiline candy company in the country. Two of the company's most popular products are Necco Assorted Wafers and Sweethearts Conversation Hearts.

During the investigation, the company will look at samples from the candy made the same day in the same lot to determine if there might have been any problems, Zimbalatti said.

Johnson said because Christopher Tapia Jr. said the candy did not show signs of outward tampering, the police department has contacted the federal Food and Drug Administration and the New Mexico Attorney General's Office about the case.

The FDA did not return a request for comment Tuesday. Paul Nixon, a spokesman for the AG's Office, said he did not have any information about the case.

Mike Kessler, president of Kessler International, a company based in New York City that investigates product tampering cases for corporations, said in most cases of people finding foreign objects in food, it's because a screw or other object has come lose in the manufacturing process and fallen in.

"It's fairly rare where it comes out of a company with a razor blade in it," Kessler said.

It is possible that someone could have tampered with the candy after it left the manufacturer, Kessler said, but that is extremely difficult to do without damaging the cellophane wrapping that usually accompanies Easter candy.

"Most consumers aren't going to buy a package that looks like it's half open," Kessler said.

His company investigates product-tampering cases with a lot of skepticism, Kessler said, but it is necessary to know all the facts about a particular case before coming to a conclusion.

The most famous product tampering case is the 1982 Tylenol case in which seven people died after ingesting Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide, Kessler said.

Cases where someone tampers with a product to harm other people are extremely rare, Kessler said.

Dr. Park Dietz, a forensic psychiatrist in Newport Beach, Calif., consults with companies on product tampering cases as an expert on criminal behavior. He agreed product tampering cases on the manufacturing end are rare. The odds are high that someone placed the object in the candy after it left the factory, he said.

But the culprit isn't always the most obvious person, Dietz said.

Sometimes, people will put a foreign object in food meant for someone else as a gag or joke, Dietz said.

When it comes to false claims, youngsters usually make a false claim to divert attention from another problem, such as a crashed car, Dietz said. With adults, the claim is usually an attempt to make money, he said.

In the end, however, it is best that investigators look at each case individually and not according to statistics, he said.

Author - Wendy Brown