Mannequin Mayhem: Halloween Dummy Too 'Real' Say Some Residents

SUDBURY, MA — A Halloween decoration on a Sudbury front lawn is causing a ghastly battle in town.

After the decoration — a "body" hanging lifelessly from a noose — was displayed on the lawn of 280 Hudson St, a word war heated up on a community Facebook page called One Sudbury. Some say the display is just too "real" and that it not only conjures up not difficult memories for those who lost a loved one to suicide, but also poses a safety hazard.

The safety issues even prompted police to request that the homeowner remove the dummy.

"We received a number of complaints of people pulling off the road, especially the morning of the fatality," Police Chief Scott Nix told Patch, referring to a fatal motorcycle accident Saturday.

Judging by feelings expressed on One Sudbury about the display, residents certainly were not of one mind. The original post questioned the display and its origin. It was not inflammatory, according to a source who told Patch she regularly visits the site and followed the thread, but the story took on a life of its own.

"Everyone who responded went bat---- crazy, with comments such as 'my child is having nightmares, take it down,' etc.," she said. "It was really attacking the homeowner. Most of the comments centered around [the fact that it was] macabre, distasteful, disrespectful to families of suicide victims, [as well as] the connotation of the hanging, children having nightmares and night terrors after seeing the hanging dummy and being afraid of Halloween...CVS decoration issues, too. [There were] some that said, 'I almost had an accident, crashed into a tree, etc.'"

The thread was removed by the page's administrators, but not before prompting local media to descend upon the town.

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WCVB-TV reported on the story Monday evening and talked to the homeowner, who told them, “My hangman was built with my children to both help them get over their own fears during the Halloween holiday as well as learn about the relationship between computers, motors and gears. Our creation is a contemporary statement on man’s struggles with technology in a modern society.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, Nix said that the dummy remained on the lawn and had been there for about two weeks.

"It is lifelike," said Nix. "I sent correspondence to the resident requesting that it be removed, and included the public safety aspect of people pulling over and also law enforcement thinking they need to render assistance. Not to mention the emotional factor. It is a first amendment right, and I can't make him take it down, but request that he do so."

The homeowner told the Boston Globe, “Chief Nix and his officers do a great job in Sudbury. I respect his concerns and have taken them under advisement."

Photo via Shutterstock