Man dressed as mummy attacked by 11-year-old with table leg

Saturday, November 2, 2019
Man dressed as mummy assaulted while handing out Halloween candy
Man dressed as mummy assaulted while handing out Halloween candy. Dann Cuellar reports on Action News at 11 on Nov. 1, 2019.

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Stanley Wyjadka, 66, has been decorating his Port Richmond home for Halloween and Christmas for 30 years.

"I don't know [why I do it]; people enjoy watching it and I enjoy doing it," said Wyjadka.

This year, he built an entire make-believe Egyptian tomb on the 100 block of East Ann Street complete with a sarcophagus.

"And I was inside as the mummy, and the kids would come in and I would wake up and give them the candy," he said.

But Wyjadka says one group of about 12 or 15 kids wasn't there to get treats, but to pull some mean tricks.

"And they decided to take the candy bucket, and they dumped the candy bucket," Wyjadka said.

He says one of them then headed for the door of his row home, apparently not realizing that Wyjadka was seeing all of this unfold as he posed as the mummy.

"I think they thought it was a dummy inside and when I came out, they didn't know," Wyjadka said.

He says he then told the kids to leave, but things turned ugly with one of them who turned out to be 11 years old.

"He said like, 'I'm gonna kill you!' and I said, 'Get out of here,'" said Wyjodka.

What the 11-year-old did next was unexpected.

"And he came from behind and he had a table leg from some table and he hit me in the back of the head with it," he said.

Police were called and they took the 11-year-old into custody.

Wyjadka, who had quadruple bypass heart surgery in September, was left with a large bump on his head but is otherwise OK.

Still, he asks, what would have happened to the 11-year-old if he had been killed?

"He would have been charged with murder or something, I mean this is crazy- over a candy bar?" he said.

Detectives say they have an active, ongoing investigation on the assault by the 11-year-old and the group of teenagers. So far, no charges have been filed.