Cops get spooky with surveillance video for Halloween

Someone on the Philadelphia Police Department's social media team is in the Halloween spirit.

Police released surveillance footage this morning of what appears to be a woman stealing a Halloween decoration from the front porch of South Philly home last week, but this surveillance footage is not like the others released by Philly PD.

While most other surveillance videos uploaded to the department's YouTube account are silent films, this one has a soundtrack.

Someone's gone the extra step of adding a spooky soundtrack (can anyone place the music?) and an image of a ghost appears behind the text at the beginning of the clip.

The actual crime itself is quite absurd, though that makes it no less a crime. The woman in the video steps on to the porch and first appears to try to shake the hand of a tall goblin doll, but it soon becomes clear she's actually trying to abduct the ghoul.

It takes the bumbling thief nearly two minutes to free the decoration of its bonds, during which time she actually takes a seat on the porch to get a better handle on the doll. She then carries the thing down the street like it's a drunk marionette.

Though the theft is quite silly, it's not the most absurd I've covered. Back in 2012, I did a story on a woman who stole fake flowers from flower boxes outside of a South Philly house seven years in a row - even after the owner tied them down with barbed wire.

Police said last week's theft happened around 3:24 a.m. Thursday on Fitzgerald Street near 11th. Anyone with information is asked to call South Detectives at 215-686-3013.