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A friendly ghost on Halloween
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October 31st is Halloween when children in the UK dress up as ghosts, witches and all kinds of weird, wonderful but very scary creatures and go "trick or treating". They visit their neighbours and show off their costumes and in return are given goodies.
If a child knocks on your door on Halloween, you should be ready with treats (usually sweets or chocolate) for them. If you don't hand over a treat, they might play a trick on you, like saying "Boo!" to try to scare you or play some other kind of harmless prank.
But the innocence of Halloween could be on the wane. Police departments around the country say there's been a sharp rise in anti-social behaviour linked to the traditional door-to-door Halloween calls.
Chris Weigold of Avon and Somerset police said "On an average day we receive 776 calls via the 999 system but on the 31st of October this was up to 1388 last year"
In Surrey Chief Inspector Stribblehill said "The way people celebrate Halloween has been steadily changing over the last few years. I think trick or treating has become more aggressive. It used to be pulling a horrible face or something equally harmless, but more and more youngsters are doing things like throwing eggs or flour, and that can be very intimidating, particularly for the elderly or vulnerable."
Last year Surry police had to deal with complaints of broken windows and fireworks being pushed through letterboxes. Whilst in Dorset the police are distributing posters that people can put up in their windows to let trick or treaters know they aren't welcome.
This year, however, there's been a change. A group of teenagers who were trick or treating in Bristol noticed a house on fire. They broke in through a window and saw 33 year old Mike Starr unconscious on the floor. They dragged him out and helped him to hospital. One of the boys' mothers said: "I'm really proud of them all."
So it seems a kinder, more gentle Halloween might be in store for us all from now on.
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