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Ohio police have landed themselves in hot water dressing their horses up for Halloween.
Authorities decided to take part in the spooky season by draping white cloths over their Mounted Unit horses with holes cut out for their eyes and ears to resemble ghosts, according to the Daily Mail.
People get to dress up every year for October 31 and animals are often left out of the fun, so you can imagine why it would have been a laugh to get these horses looking like ghosts.
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But after photos of the fun costumes made the rounds in the community, many residents likened the horses’ costumes to the Ku Klux Klan.
One resident told local station Fox 8: “Is there nobody on staff that is like, ‘This is not a good idea?’ A sheriff’s office should be out there protecting people, and if I saw that on my street, I would be terrified.”
Another added: "You go back and look at pictures of the Ku Klux Klan, it’s like the exact replica of what the horses looked like.”
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People also took to Twitter to voice their concerns as one person wrote: “Lets not act like they DONT LOOK LIKE KKK COSTUMES ..its always no big deal to people who it doesn't affect. Ghost my a**.”
Another said: “Before I even read the caption, the first thing came to my mind was why they got these horses dressed like klan horses.”
While another commented: “That was no mistake.”
They were all pretty convinced that while the intention might have been ghosts, it's certainly giving a KKK-vibe.
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However, Ohio Sheriff Frank Leonbruno has defended his employees.
He's explained that they didn’t mean to offend anyone and that it was merely a poorly executed costume.
He told Fox 8: “So, the riders thought, ‘What a great idea to have big ghosts going down the street’.
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“As the horses went down the street, they were lit up for Halloween.
"To tell you the truth, the community loved it. Kids said they were great ghost horses.”
He added that he was surprised at the backlash as he believed the animals didn’t resemble Klan horses.
Sheriff Leonbruno said: “I'm sorry that perception was there. It was never out intention to do that.”
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He continued: “I certainly didn't see any Klan members decorated for Halloween.”
UNILAD has reached out to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office for further comment.
Charisa Bossinakis