There’s bad taste and then there’s this.
What better way to ‘celebrate’ Halloween than decorate your home with items associated with a recent disease outbreak that has claimed thousands of lives?
That’s exactly what James Faulk of Dallas, Texas, did.
James Faulk of Dallas, Texas, stands proudly outside his Halloween decorations
Stacked barrels marks ‘biohazard’ fill his front yard and the house itself is marked off with caution tape and white tape marked ‘quarantine’.
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"There's negative people everywhere and they are going to give me grief about it but it's all in good fun," he told reporters as he stood on his doorstep wearing a face shield and white protective suit, gripping a clipboard and red plastic bag marked "biohazard infectious waste."
The decorations are reminiscent of scenes that have played out at three Dallas properties following the first diagnosis in the U.S. of Ebola.
'It's all in good fun', he claims
Biohazard crews descended on the apartment of Thomas Eric Duncan after he travelled to the country from West Africa.
Following his death on 8 October, two of his nurses were also diagnosed with the virus and the clean-up scene was repeated at their homes.
Faulk started putting up the decorations Sunday. He said he thought that by then "it was getting back to normal just a little bit."
Faulk's idea comes following the death of Thomas Eric Duncan in Texas earlier this month
"So the next step is: Let's have fun on Halloween and scare some people in the process," he said.
The two nurses remain hospitalized and hundreds of Texans, including those who cared for the Ebola patients and who were on the same flights as one of the nurses, are still being monitored.
"It could be too soon," Faulk conceded. "It's a scary thing."
The decorations have been reported to the police at least once
Jill Grover, whose children attend the high school across the street from Faulk's house, said she initially thought it might have been a real scene until she noticed no workers were around.
"It is Halloween, but it is scary because the Ebola was happening in Dallas," said Grover, who said she wasn't offended but could see how others would be.
University Park spokesman Steve Mace said police so far have gotten just one call about the house and an officer drove by to check out the situation. He said no laws were being broken.
According to the World Health Organisation, the Ebola epidemic has infected 10,000 people and claimed the lives of nearly 5,000.