After receiving a complaint, Home Depot agreed that this decoration was inappropriate and decided to remove it from their Halloween decor.
Scary Peeper Creeper, which has suction cups that allow it to be mounted to the outside of a window. According to the CBC, it was at one point advertised on Home Depot's website as being "perfect for scaring friends and family during Halloween or any other time of the year." There's a video on YouTube that shows people how you can use it to best effect.
Naturally, the victim of the prank in the video? A woman.
Breanne Hunt-Wells and CBC lodged the complaint with Home Depot, and their spokesperson Emily DiCarlo responded: "We agree that this is not in line with our core values, and when we heard, took immediate action and are currently in the process of removing this product from our assortment."
Comments about people being too sensitive over a harmless decoration abound, with statements like "One person complains and they take it off the shelf? That company needs to grow a pair" and "The only thing scarier than Halloween is some politically- correct idiot like this woman who tries to get everything banned because it "offends her" or deems it wrong."
But this particular "harmless decoration" imitates a real, serious crime with the history of authorities who haven't taken the stalking seriously or have been unable to prosecute it. And that's neither harmless nor amusing. Stalking, which sounds like a relatively harmless word, is also called criminal harassment in Canada - and it's a crime that's on the rise, not on the decline. According to data from 2009, approximately 3/4 of all victims of criminal harassment are female and about 69% of them happen at the victim's house. The majority of perpetrators have either a previous relationship or casual acquaintanceship with the victim.
Stalking has a profound effect on the victim. Sometimes they become more fearful, being afraid to let people walk behind them or cars drive behind them; they often have difficulty performing at work or school; some exhibit PTSD; some change phone numbers and sometimes even their names. Sometimes they even move away.
The biggest reason that it's not funny? This particular "harmless decoration" is intended to prey an unwilling participant INSIDE their own homes at Halloween (or, apparently, at any other time of year as well), violating their safe space and sense of security. While it is true that other Halloween costumes also may imitate real and serious crimes like murder, none of these show up unannounced at your window pretending to peer in on you. You either become a willing participant (or at least a tolerant observer) by leaving your home and joining the Halloween festivities, or these other Halloween pranksters ring your doorbell and ask for candy like the rest.
And if your lights are off and you've no candy to give, they go away.
They don't complain that you're being too politically correct.
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