Halloween has been a timehonored tradition all over the globe that has been celebrated for centuries. It originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, a pagan religious festival that would occur from October 31 to November 1 to welcome the harvest and bring in the “dark part of the year.” People would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts.
PopeGregoryIIIdesignated November 1 as All Saints Day in the eighth century. It didn’t take long for All Saints Day to incorporate some of the Samhain traditions.
The evening before All Saints Day came to be known as All Hallows Eve, then later morphed into Halloween. As the years passed, Halloween became a holiday for trick or treating, carving jack-o-lanterns, and wearing costumes.
Many people love Halloween and get into decorating for the holiday. Oftentimes, the decorations are so realistic and gory that they get mistaken for actual crime scenes.
A Texas man learned what happens when the Halloween decor is too good. Steven Novak went all out for Halloween in 2020. He had a dummy with a pulverized head, and “dead bodies” strewn around his yard. He also had a zombie horde attempting to break out of his house.
His display looked so real, that a few neighbors called 911 and had the police come out to investigate. Novak took the concern as a compliment and decided to have fun with it.
“I’m most proud of the wheelbarrow tipped over by the street full of Hefty bags, looking like a failed attempt to dispose of the dismembered bodies in the middle of the night,” Novak told the Dallas Observer “A kid walked by and asked me what happened to them; I said they ate too many Skittles.”
He said that the cops were called out multiple times.
“Neighbors told me cop cars were in front of my house a lot during the day,” he said. “I was only home twice to receive them. They told me they thought it was cool and that they were only there because they were required to reply to complaints from the sergeant.”
“They were in formation at the door and when I opened it they asked me if it was all mine,” he continued. “I asked, ‘You mean the blood and the bodies? Yeah, that’s me.’” Novak said his display wasn’t anywhere close to what he had envisioned.
“Honestly, though, I think I could’ve used more. [My plans] were way worse on paper. Next year though.”
One Halloween lover neglected to take down a decoration and wound up getting 911 called on them. He posted on Instagramforgettingtoremove the decoration that looked like a body in a body bag.
“Woke up this morning to 6 cops, a fire truck and an ambulance at my door because a passing car was concerned about the one Halloween decoration I neglected to take down,” the post read.
Other Halloween lovers have been on the receiving end of 911 calls due to their decorations being too realistic. One made it look like their house was on fire and fire trucks showed up to find it was just a display.
What happens if somebody is so acclimated to gory displays around Halloween that they assume a real body is just a decoration? This happened just a few days ago in North Carolina.
On October 11, China Grove Police were called to a residence about a possible dead body. Upon arriving, officers found the body of 34-year-old Robert Owens who had been missing since October 1. A landscaper said he saw the body the day prior to police being called, but didn’t alert the police.
The landscaper said he just assumed the body was a Halloween decoration or a dummy used by the police for training purposes.
A similar event occurred in Ohio in 2015. Rebecca Cade, a 31-year-old woman, was found hanging from a chain link fence. It took a bit for emergency services to be notified because some people assumed it was a Halloween decoration, since it was that time of year.
Constructionworkerscalled 911 when they realized that it was, in fact, a person and not a Halloween decoration. Unlike Owens who police are still waiting for the cause of death, Cade died from blunt force trauma.
Investigators found that Cade had gotten into a fight with Donnie Cochenour Jr. and was running from him when she got caught up in the fence. Authorities arrested Cochenour for murder. In 2017,Cochenourwasfoundnot guilty of murder and released.