On October 31st, the Lake County Ohio mounted police unit decided to dress up their horses for the upcoming Halloween festivities. The group settled on ghosts for the costumes, using white sheets with holes cut out for the eyes, mouth, and ears of the horse. A necklace of light-up pumpkins under the sheet was the finishing touch. Sounds great right? Well, quite a few people were quick to point out that the horses looked as if they were dressed as something even more sinister than ghosts.

All it takes is a quick search on Google to see that uniforms worn by the KKK, and especially those made for their horses, bear a striking resemblance to the ghost costumes donned by the Lake County police horses. Complaints came piling into both the Sheriff’s office and local news station, and Facebook comments on photos posted by the police department were less than favorable.

According to County Sheriff Frank Leonbruno, it was never the mounted unit’s desire to cause any form of discomfort, and he cited the pumpkin lights as evidence of the true intention behind the costumes. He also claimed that the costumes had an overwhelmingly positive response within the community, and the majority of comments he received were positive, even online.

No matter what the intentions were behind the costumes, it is alarming that not a single person noticed the troubling resemblance, and put a stop to the ghost idea or its execution. It’s safe to say they might be a bit more careful with their costumes next year.