By reporter Steven Smalley
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For the past 12-years, Magnolia realtor, Carol Ard, her family and neighbors, created the amazing Halloween Alley on Viewmont Way, attracting kids from all over the city. Not only did little ones and even teenagers marvel at the scary scene, they told tales of receiving full-sized candy bars as if it were some mythical Magnolia legend.
Now it?s all come to an end because of a rip-off in Kitsap County.
A small farmhouse in Poulsbo, owned by Carol and her husband Tom, was the storage location of the entire collection of Halloween props, costumes, and masks used to make the alleyway uber-creepy. Everything, including a castle, tee-pee, a blow-up cat, and 40 irreplaceable masks were stolen by perpetrators in a brazen robbery that left the little house stripped down to the walls. Moreover, the Halloween pieces were not garden-variety, these were speciality objects collected over years that today would be nearly impossible to find.
The theft of these seasonal items has taken the wind out of the sails of the Ard family. As a result, they?re calling it quits, and who can blame them. ?I?m so done,? she says. ?These (thieves) are going to get away with it. They never find anything. No one ever gets caught.?
Expensive and rare, Ard hopes going public with pictures of the props and telling her story can generate some leads, although she is not hopeful. ?It makes me mad to talk about it,? she says.
Police came out, took a report, and offered no chance what-so-ever of recovering anything, which included a stolen tractor, washer & dryer, and dining room table. ?They destroyed what they didn?t take,? Ard says.
Halloween Alley was a fixture for 12-years that had many of the kids all over town packing Viewmont Way to the point where it narrowed to one lane. Neighbors rallied around the effort to make this part of Magnolia memorable for one gigantic holiday draw.
It will be missed. Ironically, this was to be year number 13. ?We started Halloween Alley with a few hundred people. It turned into thousands,? Ard remarks. ?We had a Chain Saw Man, a real hearse, Mausoleum, loud music, and special lights.?
?We?re mad about the fact our stuff is stolen,? she continues. ?The fact the kids won?t have this is the emotional part. Kids are crying because there is no Halloween Alley.?
Undeterred, one tradition will remain. ?We?ll give out the candy bars,? she says.