DRESDEN – Sunni Shular has filled the yard of her of her home with Halloween decorations since moving back to her hometown 11 years ago, but lately vandals have taken some of the joy out of the effort.
For the past three years, the decorations that the recently widowed resident puts out in her front yard have been the target of vandals, always on the Saturday a week before Halloween.
She said Chatham-Kent police previously told her she needed to get some security in place, after she reported the vandalism.
So she did, and this time her home security video, captured at 12:30 am, Oct. 23, shows three people stomping on her Halloween decorations and stealing a couple of them before racing off when Shular runs out the house yelling at them.
Shular got an electronic witch decoration back after it was dropped by one of the vandals. However, the decoration, which had a rotating head and arms, along with flashing eyes, that talked, was broken.
She said large skeletons and animatronic decorations such as witches and dragons have been popular targets of the vandals. She said some of the animatronic decorations cost $300 to $400.
She said when her husband passed away last year she sold many of the animatronic decorations she had left.
“They kept knocking those over and I just couldn’t afford it anymore.”
But Shular is forging ahead with a scaled back version of decorations, which is still pretty impressive, because kids enjoy seeing it when they come to trick or treat.
“I’m not stopping Halloween, because of (vandals), I’m bull-headed,” she laughed.
“It takes a lot of work to put it back up again, but the kids like it so it’s worth it to me to do,” Shular said.
She added residents have told her they enjoy bringing their children to her home Halloween night, because they know it is safe.