This month, Henrico residents encountered what might be the weirdest secret Santa ever. But hey, at least the singer for Those Manic Seas is keeping busy.
I’ve received a lot of strange, unsolicited gifts in my life. A pot holder, a tiny nativity set, a picture of a family I don’t know in a frame from the 80s. But a television from the 80s, from a guy with a television set for a head? That’s a new one for me.
Earlier this month, a neighborhood in Henrico got the weirdest and spookiest gift that just keeps giving – and a bit early for Halloween, too. At least 50 homes were the unsuspecting recipients of 50 old CRT television sets. The sets were left Saturday evening, and people found them on Sunday morning — positioned just so, with the screen facing their doors.
Either the Reddit Exchange thread is getting really creative these days, or the entire city is falling down the rabbit hole of an oddly specific, yet strangely wholesome, episode of Black Mirror. Needless to say, Henrico County Police’s phones were screeching come that Sunday morning.
“Residents of more than 50 households in Henrico County, Va., woke up this weekend to find old-style TVs outside their doorsteps,” Lieutenant Matt Pecka told the Washington Post.
Just when you didn’t think it could not get more wholesome (or weird), it was revealed thanks to one resident’s doorbell cam that at least one of the folks delivering these gifts was staying on brand. The delivery person in the video was wearing a blue jumpsuit with gloves and hiking boots and — wait for it — a television their head. As they waved at the camera, they looked like they were leaving the weirdest early 80s music video on MTV — or maybe quitting Richmond indie band Those Manic Seas.
According to WTVR, this isn’t even the first time this has happened — around August of last year, a similar incident took place in Glen Allen. But then, this is Richmond, where strange prevails.
The police ultimately determined that the televisions, though both annoying and spooky, were not a threat.
“We determined there was no credible threat to residents, and that this was strictly an inconvenience,” said Pecka.
And so, this incident takes its place in the long string of oddities in the ever-growing annals of Richmond Mythology. Stay freaky, RVA.
Top Photo by John Atherton, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia
