Halloween Hijinks and (Not So) Gruesome Discovery

Brookfield police got a startling call last week from an employee at : In the business' Dumpster there was a black garbage bag containing "four human heads."

The employee at the business, 12530 W. Burleigh Rd., told police about 9 a.m. Tuesday that he was too afraid to go take a closer look inside the garbage bag.

When police checked it out, they found a deer carcass and hide inside. "No human heads," the report said.

In other Halloween-related police calls:

• A 16-year-old girl was caught trying to stuff a $60 costume into her purse to steal it from Halloween Express, 17300 W. Blue Mound Rd., at 3:15 p.m. Sunday.
  
  An employee confronted her and she admitted to trying to take it without paying. Her parents were called and she received a municipal citation for retail theft.
  
  The costume she tried to steal? A police officer.

• About a half-dozen homeowners reported Thursday that their mailboxes had been damaged overnight. Someone apparently threw large pumpkins at the mailboxes, causing dents in some and knocking the light off the top of one in the 18280 block of Chevy Chase Street.
  
  Mailboxes also were hit in the 900 block of Garvens Avenue, 1400 block of Helene Drive and 100 block of Tower Hill Drive. The Helene Drive homeowner said it would cost $50 to repair or replace the busted mailbox.

• Police responded to a call about a suspicious car driving slowly back and forth in the 20900 block of Bartlett Drive, with occupants getting out and walking around shortly before 9 p.m. Thursday.
  
  Officers discovered it was a mother helping her fifth-grade daughters "ghost" their friends. "Ghosting," they said, was the practice of dropping off small bags of candy on the doorsteps of friends and neighbors, ringing their doorbell and running off. The mother said she was driving back and forth while trying to find the correct houses.

Whether another call has anything to do with Halloween is unknown, but a Brookfield church told police they found "bloody footprints" from the women's bathroom to the church exit.

The pastor at , 16650 W. Greenfield Ave., said there were people attending a meeting at the church Sunday evening, but none of the attendees was bleeding. He said there were "a couple tablespoons worth" of blood and said it appeared someone had entered the church between 6 and 8:45 p.m., used the restroom and left.