ABC 7
While the worst thing most of us have had to deal with this time of year when it comes to our neighbors are all the political lawn signs, some folks in Riverside, Calif. have been moved to call 911 on a neighbor because their Halloween decorations are so realistic they believed the house was on fire.
In fact, the Halloween decorations on the home of Carmen and Travis Long are so realistic that not just one, but multiple people have phoned 911 because they were worried.
“We’ve been adding things every year,” Carmen told ABC 7. “It started with just skeletons, then we added a cannon in the back and the ship, the pretend fire on the side.”
It’s gotten so bad that the Longs say they check in with the local fire department each weekend. They have also told the local fire department dispatch that unless the alarm system at their address goes off, there’s probably nothing actually wrong.
“We’ve lived in the neighborhood since 2001, but never really went all out until 2017 when we moved in to this house,” Carmen told Fox 13. “I actually don’t do much of the decorating: This is all on my husband. We just make ourselves available when he needs us to hold something so he can set it up.”
Of course it’s all his doing. Gotta love it.
“When you stand in front of the window you can quickly see that it isn’t real, but from far away it looks realistic,” Carmen said.
She also said the idea for the Halloween decorations came from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland.
“It’s just satin cloth, an orange light, a red light, and a fan,” she explained.
People calling 911 on someone’s Halloween decorations has become something of an semi-annual thing.
It happened in North Dakota in 2018…
In Michigan in 2015…
And again in Oklahoma in 2013…
Looks like we’ve got all our Halloween decoration ideas lined up for the next few years, huh?