My sister lives in an over-55 community. They started a tradition where you put a picture of a pumpkin on your garage door if you’re willing to give out candy for Halloween. This was supposed to be for the grandchildren of the residents, and at first it worked well. Well, before long, vans stuffed full of “recent arrivals from south of the border” started showing up, with their hands out. Many of the “kids” looked way too old to be trick-or-treating and didn’t even bother wearing costumes. Obviously they had heard that there were handouts to be had, and so they showed up in droves. As a result, many of the residents got disgusted and stopped giving out candy. A nice tradition has now been ruined for the kids for whom it was intended.
That definitely sounds familiar. My block stays dark for Halloween (almost no kids in the area), but that doesn’t even matter. Lights all off? No problem. We’ll ring the door anyway. I mean, even if we were giving out candy, lights out used to mean “we’re all out, sorry.” They also start extremely early now. I guess that’s so they can hit as many neighborhoods as possible.
Another reason why I hate Mexicans. My niece volunteered at a local soup kitchen some years ago and in short order the same thing happened. Mexicans started showing up in new SUVs and pickups because they were told there were handouts to be had. The church had to close the soup kitchen down because these a-holes eat up the budget.