Poached pumpkin returned, Halloween saved for 3-year-old girl
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Mae Perrilliat, 3, buries herself in a hug of her beloved inflatable pumpkin Friday, Oct. 30, 2015. Two men poached the ornament overnight Thursday from her Uptown front yard. They returned the pumpkin and apologized Friday, a day after Mae's mother, Carter Perrilliat, posted online a surveillance video of the prank. (
Courtesy of Carter Perrilliat)
By Manuel Torres, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune.
on October 30, 2015
A 3-year-old girl's Halloween has been saved after two men Friday (Oct. 30) returned the beloved inflatable pumpkin they had poached from her Uptown New Orleans front yard.
Mae Perrilliat awoke Thursday morning to find the large ornament had disappeared in the 5200 block of Coliseum Street.
"When it was gone, she said, 'Mommy, a trouble-maker took our pumpkin," her mother, Carter Perrilliat, recalled Thursday.
A neighbor's surveillance camera caught two people exiting an SUV, apparently a Lexus, and stuffing the massive pumpkin in the back seat before driving away sometime after midnight. (Watch the video below this story.)
Perrilliat posted the video online to try to shame them into returning the ornament. "My goal is to embarrass whoever did this, and we would appreciate our pumpkin back," Perilliat said Thursday.
It worked. On Friday, she said the young men returned the pumpkin and apologized, saying they had taken the ornament as a prank.
"The pumpkin was returned and Mae was thrilled. Reunited! Lots of great lessons learned. The boys apologized; I was very impressed," Perrilliat wrote in an email message.
A pictured Friday showed a delighted Mae burying herself in a hug of the returned pumpkin.
You can watch the video of the pumpkin's taking below. The vehicle pulls up at the top of the screen.
Staff writer Richard Rainey contributed to this report. http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2015/10/halloween_saved_stolen_inflata.html#...