Michigan Woman’s Halloween Display So Death-Like, it Prompts 911 Calls

LaRethia Haddon takes Halloween very seriously. In fact, the Halloween displays she erects at her Detroit home have prompted calls to 911 in the past and this year is no different.

Haddon tells USA Today that she's featured a dummy decorated as a dead body in her yard for the past 25 years in the weeks leading up to Halloween. She moves display every day for maximum effect.

Surprisingly, phone calls to 911 regarding costumes or extremely lifelike, er, death-like displays don't increase around the holiday, according to Detroit Fire Commissioner Dave Fornell, who spoke with USA Today.

“People don’t hesitate, they pick up the phone and call 911 if somebody needs help,” Fornell said. “We get calls like that every day, and they’re all real incidents. That type of call doesn’t bother us at all. That’s a justifiable call. We don’t see that as an issue.”

In the past, Haddon has used her displays to bring awareness to issues that plague citizens in the country and here in Michigan. Her dead-body mannequins have represented victims of police shootings, child slayings, and even the Flint Water Crisis.

In the video below from 2018, Haddon made an appeal to various TV personalities in an attempt to bring national attention to these crises. The sign held by one of her dummies reads, "Flint Water - Nobody Deserves This."

Haddon told the Detroit Free Press in 2016 that the idea was inspired by her then-5 and 10-year-old grandchildren that they "weren't afraid of the boogeyman or monsters, but of what's happening in the world today.".