Halloween Prop Mistaken for a Severed Foot
Aug 11th, 2011 by Jeff Westover
It sounded like the classic beginning to a horror story.
A 13-year-old boy was out fishing on tiny Lake Marie in north suburban Antioch, Illinois when his line snagged on what he thought was a big catch. As he reeled it in, though, he saw something much more disturbing: a human foot.
The foot slipped off the line about three feet from the boat, and the boy contacted authorities immediately, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The Antioch Fire Dive Team, the Lake County Sheriff’s Marine Unit and the sheriff’s Criminal Investigations Division began combing the murky water, using special sonar equipment brought in for the purpose.
After an exhaustive, eight-and-a-half-hour search, the Chicago Tribune reports that authorities finally found what the boy had hooked.
He could be forgiven for sounding the alarm. But it turned out that the object was nothing more than a “fake Halloween prop,” according to sheriff’s police.
Lt. Christopher Thompson of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said that the boy made the right decision in alerting the authorities, given how realistic the prop was.