[Observer]

Halloween​

Woke up this morning to six cops, a fire truck, and an ambulance pounding on my door at 6 AM because apparently my Halloween decoration looked too realistic from the street - black garbage bags stuffed and positioned on the old deck stairs I've been meaning to fix, looking exactly like what a concerned passing motorist thought it was: a body. The officer's face went from dead serious to trying not to laugh when I explained I'd just finished making it last night after finding instructions on the Tedooo app (which I'm grateful to have found thanks to this group since I now sell there too!) for "ultra-realistic crime scene decorations" and left it outside temporarily while deciding where to place it for maximum Halloween effect. The paramedics were already packing up their gear but one stopped to tell me his wife would love it, asked if I was selling them anywhere, while another cop took photos to show his teenager who "lives for this horror stuff." Cost me $12 in garbage bags and old clothes from Goodwill, plus whatever my dignity is worth standing there in my ratty bathrobe explaining to half the city's emergency services that no, nobody died, I just got really into Halloween this year - though I'm definitely moving it to the backyard tonight because my 84-year-old neighbor almost had a heart attack when she came out to get her newspaper and I really can't afford another welfare check.