A dark-humoured mum has entombed a life-size skeleton behind a wall in her living room along with an empty water bottle in an attempt to spook future occupants.
Amanda Mundy first took inspiration for the mischievous prank from a friend before her husband Rod, 58, suggested they try it themselves while doing home renovations.
Before the couple installed drywall around a cubby hole above their fireplace, 55-year-old Amanda whizzed around her local Halloween store and grabbed the six-foot anatomical model to bring home.
After forewarning a tradesman due to complete work on their house on Thursday, executive assistant Amanda propped the spooky figure up with a bottle of her favourite drink in hand - along with a sign reading '2023 Hide and Seek Champion'.
Amanda, from Fairborn, in Ohio, America, said: "It's just a bit of fun and light-hearted.
"I hope the person who finds it is very surprised and appreciates the prank.
"Hopefully they'll think it's a real person - even just for a couple of seconds. Then I hope they appreciate it's something from 2023.
"It cost $60 (£49) which is a lot for a prank but at the same time, it was something my husband really wanted to do.
"We went to the local Halloween store and they had lots to choose from.
"We picked this guy and put him in there with a note explaining who we are, the date and why we were renovating the house with the hope of turning it into our dream home.
"We put in a newspaper and a little sign saying '2023 hide and seek champion', a few dollars in coins because they're always saying we're not going to have money anymore. In 30 years, that might be a novelty."
The family lost their home of 33 years to a fire last year and just moved into their forever home - where they plan to stay as they grow old.
Amanda said: "When we decided to frame in over the fireplace my husband stood there and said 'oh, we have a cubby to put a skeleton in'.
"It was one of those things where I hope we do the fireplace so well that no one ever finds the skeleton, but in 30 years when we don't live there anymore and somebody decides to open it up.
"My husband wanted to put one of his favourite bottles of bourbon in there but we figured that's probably a bit of an accelerant so we decided to put Pellegrino in there.
"We had a tradesman coming to do the dry wall. He closed it in on Thursday.
"I sent him a picture so he wouldn't be surprised. He said 'oh my gosh, I've always seen people talk about doing this but I've not seen anyone actually do it'."
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