Runaway inflatable pumpkin spooks police as they attempt to catch it and return it home

This image made from a Parma Heights Police Department body camera video shows a police officer approaching a runaway inflatable pumpkin on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025. (Parma Heights Police Department via AP)

PARMA HEIGHTS, Ohio — Police in northeast Ohio went in pursuit of a runaway inflatable pumpkin after receiving calls of a large, orange inflatable object on the run.

Body camera footage from the Parma Heights Police Department shows the inflatable pumpkin rolling down the street was difficult to grasp.

Officers eventually stopped and detained the inflatable pumpkin Tuesday night. The footage shows an officer holding onto the giant plastic gourd and saying to a colleague that he was “following it” but “it kept blowing away.”

After its capture, multiple officers attempted to deflate the pumpkin but they failed and had to work together to push the giant orange ball in the back of a police car.

“I’ve never seen that before,” an officer can be heard saying of the inflatable Halloween decoration packed tight in the backseat.

The officers then drove the pumpkin back to its home where it is on display “to be enjoyed by all who pass it throughout the remainder of this fall season,” Parma Heights Police Department spokesman Sgt. Eric Taylor said in a statement.