CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A local woman got fed up when the city neglected to fix a hole they made in her yard. So, to make light of the situation, she decked it out just in time for Halloween.
It's the nightmare on Saint Denis street, and it all started when the family that lives in this house started having plumbing issues.
Melissa Osborne says back in September the city came out to her house to fix a problem with the sewer. Since then it's just been an open hole, until she covered it with a unique prop.
The keep out sign wasn't meant to be a Halloween decoration, that's just what it turned out to be.
“The city shows up and dug up the sidewalk on either side like a 6-foot area on either side,” said Osborne.
She says city workers fixed a broken sewer main, but before they left they forgot to cover a lid to the line, causing sewage to spill onto her front yard.
The workers came back to fix the spill, but this time, they didn't cover the hole in the ground, so Osborne was left with a hollow ditch right in front of her house.
“I took pictures of it and I called and was like were they on lunch break or are they coming back,” said Osborne. “A couple days later I call again, and the guy says ok I’ve got you on the list I’ll have someone come up and take care of it.”
“The next day they came up with this big load of dirt and dumped it on my yard and on the sidewalk and it was off into the street and they left.”
Eventually the wind and rain settled the dirt but Osborne says the city never replaced the sod or grass she had.
As it got closer to Halloween, I started stressing about how it was going to look, so about a week ago I just decided to cover it up,” said Osborne. “I went to the and I had these pallets and inspiration hit so I went and got the red paint and slapped ‘KEEP OUT’ on it and now it's a Halloween decoration.”
Osborne says her neighbors love the decoration and so does her 6-year-old son.
She plans to keep it out for trick-or-treaters to enjoy on Halloween night , and then she'll see about getting it properly patched.