Every town has a dark side.

Porch lights glow and plastic fangs click, but Halloween's real trick isn't the costumes, it's the permission it gives.

The mask loosens the space between impulse and consequence. Most people play pretend, but

a few don't, and those are the stories we're checking out today.

Hey guys, it's Andrew.

Welcome back to Everytown.

Thanks for tuning in.

Now, tonight isn't about ghosts, goblins, or monsters.

It's about what a costume lets ordinary people get away with.

Four stories, one night that keeps inviting bad choices. So, let's head around the country

and check out Halloween's dark reality, the night that enables evil. Every single Halloween while kids fall asleep with face paint cracking and parents are picking up candy wrappers

while cops all around the country tighten up.

And they know the pattern.

After dark, the calls stack up.

Break-ins, assaults, and sometimes even worse.

A Halloween isn't just about movies and pumpkins, it's one of the riskiest nights of the calendar

year.

Studies show property crime jumps around 24%, and violent incidents can spike close to 50%.

The numbers are interesting, but they don't paint the full picture.

If you want to know why the night tilts this way, you have to rewind.

Pass candy corn and haunted houses and past superheroes on sidewalks. All the way to before Halloween

was even a word.

...