As Halloween approached and autumn settled over Eureka, Illinois, one neighborhood got an unexpected — and spooky — surprise in the sky.
Among the pumpkins and cobwebs decorating lawns, something far stranger appeared overhead: what looked like a witch flying on a broomstick.
“My mom got a call from a neighbor telling her to look out the back window,” said Eric Lind. What she saw next stopped her in her tracks.
There, perched in a pine tree, was not a witch at all — but an owl, proudly clutching a child’s stick horse toy in its talons.
“She saw the owl staring back at her, holding the stick horse,” Lind said.
Apparently, the curious bird had snatched the toy from a nearby yard, and though it wasn’t food, he seemed determined to show it off. As he soared through the sky with the toy in tow, the scene looked uncannily like something out of a Halloween movie.
“He flew from the tree to a nearby power pole,” Lind said, “and then took off across the neighborhood.”
Lind captured the bizarre moment on video and shared it on Facebook, where it quickly caught attention — and plenty of laughs.
Reactions flooded in, with many calling out the owl’s uncanny resemblance to a witch on a broomstick or even a character from Harry Potter.
But this feathered trickster wasn’t just passing through. Lind said the owl is part of a local family that’s lived in the area for about six months.
“We see them flying from tree to tree, swooping down to check things out,” he said. “They kept us entertained all summer, but this was definitely the most dramatic thing we’ve seen.”
Though the owl has since ditched the stick horse, the moment left a lasting impression on the neighborhood — and gave everyone a perfectly timed Halloween laugh.
Now, Lind and his family are keeping their eyes on the skies, ready for whatever delightfully weird surprise their owl neighbors might bring next.
