A New Brunswick woman who bought a Halloween decoration at a local yard sale found out the hard way that sometimes skeletons are best left in the closet. 

Rachel Schmidt of Fredericton, N.B. and her 11-year-old son recently bought a realistic-looking skeleton decoration at a local yard sale for $2. When “Jeffy,” as the decoration’s been named, couldn’t fit in their trunk, the two decided it would be funny if it rode in the front seat.

Schmidt went to shop for groceries later in the day and left Jeffy in the car. When she came back out, her car was blocked by a police cruiser as someone had apparently called out of concern for what appeared to be a body in the car. 

“(The officer) said: ‘I need to inspect your vehicle,' so then it clicked: 'Oh my gosh, it was that Halloween decoration,' Schmidt told CTV Atlantic.

“(It was) just a silly Halloween thing, but they really had to look at it, just to make sure.”

Schmidt cleared up the mishap with police, then posted about the incident on social media. Schmidt’s post has since gone viral, with more than 2,300 shares and more than 4,000 likes since Friday night.

“I just hope I didn't scare some poor person who walked by and thought there was actually a skinned human in my car,” she said.

In a statement, the Fredericton Police Force said: “Sometimes calls come in to us, and they end up being different in the end. Thankfully, this is one of these cases.”

Angela Palmer, the artist who created Jeffy, never thought the decoration she almost threw away would spark a police investigation.

“I almost didn't put it in the yard sale,” she said. “I was going to put it in the trash, actually and I thought: ‘I'll throw it in there, somebody might want it.'”