A widely shared video shows a political Halloween display being destroyed by a passerby in Denver’s Jefferson Park neighborhood. Leah Payne, the homeowner, captured the incident on her surveillance camera and posted it on social media, where it quickly went viral with hundreds of thousands of views. In the footage, a man is seen knocking over two skeletons holding political signs before throwing another skeleton at Payne’s 12-foot-tall skeleton decoration.
Payne, who was inside her home at the time, heard the loud noise outside and immediately checked her yard. “I was just sitting on my couch watching TV and I heard something loud right by our front window. I was like, that doesn’t sound good,” she recalled. Based on the destruction, Payne suspects the man disagreed with the political messages in her yard. The incident took place on October 6, coinciding with the Broncos’ game against the Raiders, and several people in Broncos gear can be seen passing by in the video.
After the display was vandalized, Payne followed the group down the street to confront the man and filed a police report. “I was like, what are you doing? What’s wrong with you? I was like, come clean up my yard,” Payne said. Despite the unsettling event, she praised her neighborhood, calling Jefferson Park “really great,” though she acknowledged that gamedays sometimes bring unpredictable behavior.
