Halloween is still several months away, but those who really love the holiday keep their eyes open for decorations year-round.
Rachel Schmidt and her 11-year-old found Jeffy, a decorated skeleton, at a yard sale.
“My trunk was full so we couldn't position him in, so we thought it'd be funny to put him in the car, and he sat in there all day,” Schmidt said.
The skeleton was buckled up in the front passenger's seat and, forgetting that Jeffy was there, she went to buy groceries that evening -- and returned to some unexpected guests.
“When I came out, there was a police car in front of my car,” Schmidt said. “He said ‘I need to inspect your vehicle,’ so then it clicked, ‘oh my gosh, it was that Halloween decoration.’”
After clearing it up with police -- and getting a good laugh -- she took to social media to share the incident with friends and family.
The post got a lot more attention than Schmidt expected as it garnered thousands of likes and comments.
The local artist who designed Jeffy didn't think he would elicit this kind of a response.
“I almost didn't put it in the yard sale,” said Angela Palmer. “I was going to put it in the trash, actually, and I thought, ‘no, I'll throw it in there, somebody might want it,’ and I sold it for $2.”
Said Schmidt: “That's just a silly Halloween thing. But they really had to look at it, just to make sure.”
As it turns out, Schmidt didn't break the law.
Fredericton police issued this statement to CTV News: “Sometimes calls come in to us, and they end up being different in the end. Thankfully, this is one of these cases.”
Schmidt said: “I just hope I didn't scare some poor person who walked by and thought, ‘there's actually a skinned human in my car.’”
Make no bones about it; this is one skeleton that is going back in the closet.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Jessica Ng.
