Police respond to holiday decor
By CHERYL MECHAM
Uintah Basin Standard
Eddy and Vicky Courtright have been complimented for the Christmas light display that outlines the eaves of their pristine home on Areva Road in Roosevelt.
But this year a concerned citizen called the cops about the Courtrights' holiday decor.
Roosevelt Police Chief Rick Harrison said an officer was called to the home to investigate reports of a dead man, hanging from the Courtrights' roof,
The officer discovered that the "dead man" was actually a stuffed dummy dressed in denim jeans and a plaid shirt clinging to the rain gutter with a snarl of Christmas lights on the ground below.
The effect was made perhaps a bit too real with a construction crew working on a garage at the side of the Courtright home.
"Officer Chapman said calls were coming into the police department about it," Vicky said, adding that the officer suggested she take the display down.
"People were concerned about the person hanging from my roof," she said.
Vicky thought she'd hurry home after work and take the dummy down. But the Courtrights talked it over and decided that they'd leave it up unless someone came forward to sign an actual complaint.
"We don't know if it was a prank call or if it had really upset or offended them," Eddy said. "We would take it down if it offended someone - if they had lost someone who had died that way. But take it down because it's not traditional Christmas? No way."
Vicky said the Christmas dummy is part of their overall theme this year - a redneck Christmas. She has a tree topper constructed of glossy white toilet brushes that her former coworkers at Union High School crafted for her along with postcard sized photos of redneck cowboys and cowgirls with their photos pasted over the actual images.
Tacky? Uh-huh. It's all part of the theme.
This year's tree is covered with miniature toilet bowls in red and green filled with sour candy, chewing tobacco lids, chewing gum wrapper chains and and a mischievous tilt to her mouth. It is easy to see she delights in an idea taking shape. But, she said, "I hate to decorate."
The Courtrights have long assumed that the police would be called, but not for Christmas decorations.
They thought it would be because of their Halloween antics. Indeed Vicky was up on stilts in the frontyard covered in flowing gauzy camouflage-colored robes sporting a troll mask on Oct. 31.
"Kids wouldn't even come in the yard," Eddie chuckled. "It's weird we're getting all this attention for a stuffed guy at Christmas time."
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