When Brock McEwan got back home from work last week, he found a scary Halloween surprise from the City of Burlington tucked in his mailbox.

It was a bylaw warning instructed him to take down one of his Halloween decorations — a large inflatable ghost — or risk facing a fine of $5,000 per day.

The notice cited a nuisance and noise bylaw that notes “strong, moving, or twinkling lights that shine onto neighbouring properties and cause a disturbance are not permitted.”

That was news to the father of a 22-month-old baby and a four-year-old — whose neighbourhood appears to host at least four or five similar blow-up, ghostly decorations without any apparent issue.

The offending inflatable ghost on a Burlington front lawn that was the subject of a bylaw notice. Rajiv Rao

“I didn’t go to

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