The Great Pumpkin is real and on the run in Ohio

In what may be the most seasonal police chase in recent memory, this week, Ohio officers found themselves in hot pursuit of a very large, very orange suspect. No, not that one; it was a runaway inflatable pumpkin.

Body-cam footage released by the Parma Heights Police Department shows one bemused officer describing how the gourd just “took off” as he tried to grab it. “I was pretty much in pursuit,” he says, chasing after the Halloween display that had blown from a residence and rolled through the neighborhood.

After several failed attempts to deflate it, the officers finally managed to squash it into the back of a patrol car. One can be heard saying, “I’ve never seen that before,” as the inflatable monster pumpkin packed tight in the backseat.

In a lighthearted Facebook post, the department confirmed the pumpkin was returned to its owner, joking that “Cinderella’s carriage did, in fact, turn back into a pumpkin” sometime before midnight.

This isn’t the first time Ohio’s police forces have tangled with rogue seasonal decor. Last October, a similar inflatable pumpkin went on a windy joyride, rolling into traffic and briefly “attacking” an officer before being wrangled back into submission.

It’s a festive reminder that even in law enforcement, sometimes the weirdest calls are the ones you don’t expect — and in October, it might just be your Halloween decorations trying to make a break for it.

The post The Great Pumpkin is real and on the run in Ohio appeared first on Salon.com.