You can’t miss it. Go to the corner of H and Patricia streets in Chula Vista and you’ll be terrified by the sheer number of monsters waiting to greet you.
“We made a little passage for the people here,” said Karla Green as she walked down a small path that snaked through her front yard. Small barriers keep children away from the decorations and away from busy H Street.
“We try to keep everything on this side. We actually made the walkway so they can see things better and not spend so much time on the street side. We’re trying to do everything we can to keep them safe,” she said.
She says her family’s precautions also extend to protecting their home and their neighbours’ properties. Most of their monsters run on batteries and screams, not extension cords.
“We try to keep everything in order so nothing blows up,” Karla said, sounding eerily similar to the Addams Family.
Halloween may be the scariest time of the year in more ways than one. According to the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, home and auto insurance claims tend to increase the closer we get to 31 October.
No matter how careful you are, accidents can always come out of nowhere and get you.
“That skeleton you put out, somebody tripped over it or it blew into the neighbour’s car, something like that could happen, you could see all kinds and types of claims,” said Bob Passmore of the APCIA.
Passmore added that insurance companies have historically set themselves up to deal with the additional claims that homeowners might make.
These include claims for property damage, injury, vandalism and theft by evil ghouls looking for empty houses.
“Because people look for houses that are dark. Usually it’s a signal to trick-or-treaters that we’re not home or we don’t have any candy, but it kind of plays into the hands of those who would either break into your house or vandalise your house,” says Passmore.
While we were at Karla’s house, several cars slowed down to take a closer look or take a picture of all the decorations. Insurance companies are also bracing themselves for an increase in car insurance claims.
“We have a lot more pedestrian injuries and fatalities because we have more people on the street and a lot more people driving around to get to places,” said Passmore, describing how active trick-or-treaters and cars can get in residential areas on Halloween night.
“If you’re driving through neighbourhoods, slow down, drive even slower than you normally would, and put your phone down,” he added.
A few precautions that could keep Halloween scares fake, fun for everyone and free of insurance claims.
