Good grief, Charlie Brown! Giant inflatable pumpkin takes pre-Halloween flight

CARY, N.C. (AP) — Call it the Great Pumpkin escape.

A two-story-high inflatable jack-o’-lantern took a tumble through Cary, North Carolina, Sunday, just as the remnants of Hurricane Isaias passed through. And social media loved it.

“It’s the best advertising we could ask for,” Michael Phillips, owner of Phillips Farm, said of his bright orange fugitive.

With a tornado warning in effect Sunday afternoon, workers had decided to forgo blowing up the oversized lawn ornament. Sure enough, a twister reportedly touched down about a quarter mile (.40 kilometers) away.

But when the sun peeked out, Michael’s dad Lee Phillips decided to pump up the pumpkin, complete with its classic black triangular eyes and a lopsided grin.

“All of a sudden, we started getting like 35-, 40-mile-an-hour (56-64 kilometer) wind gusts out of nowhere,” Michael Phillips said. “And then, `Bam.’ It just started going.”

The giant pumpkin took flight, rolling along a post-and-rail fence, past a church and on down the road.

“It just went crazy,” Michael Phillips said of the online reaction. “I still wake up every morning … and have 80 to 150 notifications of people commenting on the videos.”

Some wags have turned the footage into a meme, pretending it’s some kind of alien creature coming to destroy the city. Phillips said his workers had the situation under control in about a minute, and no one was ever in any danger.

But with six weeks of hurricane season left, he’s not taking any chances. The wayward squash is now secured with paracord, baling twine and corkscrew spikes, with everything tied off to two tractors.

“Unless the tractors fly away, it’s not going anywhere,” Michael Phillips said.