As managing editor of In the spirit of the Halloween season, here's a timely story with a plastics angle from the Los Angeles Times and the Ventura County Star.
Last week city officials in Simi Valley, Calif., shut down a haunted house that Cindy Fike and her family had been operating for the past eight years.
Even though the attraction was open to the public free of charge, and it was on Fike's property, the city said it was illegal because it was operating without an amusement permit.
The plastics angle here -- and what makes this haunted house so cool that it attracts about a thousand visitors every year -- is the connection to Plastic Depot, a Burbank, Calif., supply store.
Fike's son, Kyle Killips, runs Plastic Depot, which supplies acrylic and other products to the film and TV industry. As a result, he has access to some realistic-looking scary props that go far beyond the normal costume-store stuff. (Check the blog links for photos)
After the city shut down the attraction, Killips and his friends spent a couple of days tearing it down. Is there a Halloween equivalent of the Grinch?
But this story has a happy ending for all the little ghosts and goblins in Simi Valley. After getting some heat from the public, the city has backtracked on its decision to shut down the haunted house. So Killips is re-assembling the project, and he hopes to have it up and running by Oct. 30.
Killips told the LA Times that he has spent $15,000 on his collection of mummies, alien monsters, mad scientists and other scary stuff. Remember, he doesn't charge admission -- this is just an expensive treat he does for his neighborhood.
"It all comes out of my pocket," he said. "But the kids in the neighborhood get a blast out of it. When you hear them having so much fun, it's hard not to be in a good mood."