Some Bowie residents are upset about a neighbor’s Halloween decoration, which portrays a body hanging upside down from a tree in a garbage bag. News4’s Derrick Ward reports.
Some residents in a Bowie, Maryland neighborhood think that one neighbor's Halloween decorations went too far and want the disturbing display taken down.
Video shows what looks like a body wrapped up in a black garbage bag dangling upside down from a tree. The imagery of the decoration reminds some of a lynching.
One resident said that although she's not against Halloween, she doesn't find it appropriate.
"I was definitely frightened by it," the resident said. "It was definitely eye-catching [and] not something that you would typically see for a Halloween decoration."
When News4 talked to the homeowner who put up the display, he said it was just a decoration. He bought it with one click on Amazon.
Juan Estrada, a resident, said he understands going all out for Halloween. When his kids were younger, he used to decorate all the time – from displaying a fake severed head to creating a crime scene with his car.
"I put an effigy down underneath, put some yellow tape around it and created a crime scene," Estrada said.
Despite being a proponent of Halloween decorations, he said he understands the connotations of a hanging body set up in a neighborhood. Still, he's not taking the decoration too seriously.
"Life is too short to worry about, you know, petty stuff," Estrada said.
A spokesperson from the Bowie Police Department told News4 that there are no ordinances applying to this kind of display and that it's on private property in Bowie.
