Commack Home Becomes Halloween Chop Shop

If you hear screams coming from 4 Peppermint Road in Commack, don't call 911. The eerie music is all part of the McMahon family's All-Hallows' Eve celebrations, in which they turn their home into a Halloween chop shop for kids in the neighborhood.

Richie McMahon, a retired FDNY fireman, along with his daughter, Nicole, start decorating Oct. 1 each year and work for the rest of the month to turn their home into a haunted graveyard and chop shop. The front lawn is decked with skeletons, coffins and bones. There's also a haunted walk-through along the wrap-around porch, complete with strobe lights, hanging skulls and a number of ghoulish surprises.

"I do it all for the kids. And I'm a kid at heart too," McMahon said, while showing off the mask that he'll be wearing Thursday night to scare his visitors.

The family has been putting the haunted house together for about six years, and it gets more elaborate every time.

"We always say we're going to stop buying things for it, but every year it gets bigger and bigger," McMahon's wife, Christine, said.

Not only does the family completely decorate the home, but they also get into character to give their guests a fright. About a dozen family members, neighbors and friends volunteer to dress up and scare the kids who enter the haunted walkway. The grand finale is a monster with a chainsaw that chases the kids onto the front lawn.

Nicole said that when Hurricane Sandy hit just days before Halloween last year, they worked to put everything together so that children in the neighborhood would have fun, despite not having power in their own home.

"They were so happy and grateful that the kids got to something on Halloween," she said.

The house has become a local attraction too, as drivers slow down to take a better look at the home's decorations.

"The best part is seeing everyone enjoy it," she said.

Another home to see this Halloween is on Townline Road, directly next to North Ridge Primary School, where trick-or-treaters will see spiders the size of trees and other impressive decorations.