Holiday display with Clark Griswold hanging off a roof creates panic in Texas

By Rodolfo Vieira

Dec 03, 2018

04:50 P.M.

A man named Alfred Norwood Jr. almost had a heart attack when he saw what seemed like a man hanging from the roof of a two-story home.

The incident took place in Austin, Texas, and, as it turns out, the hanging man wasn't even a man but a dummy the homeowners put there as part of their Christmas decorations.

As reported by KVUE, Chris and Hannah Heerlein were just trying to win their neighborhood's annual Christmas display contest but managed to scare Norwood in the process.

"The Heerleins learned that, thanks to their attention to detail, they had a shot at winning the Christmas display contest."

The Heerlein's tried to recreate the scene in which Clark Griswold, from the movie "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation," was holding onto the rain gutter after losing traction while stapling Christmas lights.

A GOOD SAMARITAN

Norwood, unaware that he was looking at a dummy, was caught on the security cameras wrestling with a ladder, which he positioned next to the doll.

In the footage, the concerned man can be heard asking the dummy if it could reach the ladder but, obviously, he didn't get any response. After screaming for help, Norwood called 911.

NO HARM, NO FOUL

A police officer, who is yet to be identified, shortly arrived at the scene and upon realizing that it was a doll stapled to the roof and not a person, asked the nanny about it.

The Heerlein family was notified about the situation and decided to put up a sign at the front warning people that the 'man hanging from the roof' was just part of a display.

MELANIA'S BLOODY TREES

Norwood was given a gift card for trying to help and the Heerleins learned that, thanks to their attention to detail, they had a shot at winning the Christmas display contest.

But the Heerleins weren't the only ones putting up a scary Christmas decoration; according to several people online, Melania Trump's red trees seem to belong in a horror movie and several Twitter users took the opportunity to make fun of the situation.