Dummy in Halloween display sparks calls to police

DETROIT (WJBK) - Halloween is still a few weeks away but some are folks are already getting spooked. A Halloween decoration of a dead body on Detroit's west side has some people calling police thinking it is an actual person.

"Every year I come up with something," says Larethia Haddon, who loves Halloween. "This year's just taken off really big."

And it's all because of her dummy. Haddon says her life-like doll with her front porch decorations looks so real that people are pulling over.

"I've had people stop, try to do CPR, knock on my door, scream and holler," Haddon says. "That's not the reaction I really wanted; I'm trying to get a laugh out of them.

"As soon as I tell them it’s a dummy, it just calms everything down."

But do the police think it's funny?

"The police? They have a great reaction, they just laugh and laugh it off," she says.

What about paramedics?

"The EMS drivers, they have a different opinion about it," she says.

But as for everyone else in the neighborhood, "it makes their day," she says.

Haddon said she's been making Halloween displays for about 25 years and now she's even selling dummy replicas.

You can find her on Facebook at Haddon's Creations.