When rats, bats, cats and spiders begin to cling to Chuck Yackley’s Mercedes-Benz smart car, it’s a sure sign Halloween is approaching.
For the past four years, the 84-year-old Yackley has been decorating his car, dubbed the “Little Benz,” with a plethora of decorations for most holidays.
A 1949 graduate of Glenbard West High School, he got the itch to decorate after seeing some smart car owners adopt unusual paint jobs for their cars. He opted to stick decorations on his car that he could swap out rather than be married to one paint job.
For Halloween, decorations include a skeletal dog carrying a rat in its mouth, a black cat, an owl, two buzzards, a skull, a spider, multiple window clings with pumpkins and black roses attached to the end of his car’s antennae. The rear of his car is decorated to make it appear as if a witch flew into it at a high rate of speed. A comic-style voice bubble shouts “ouch.”
Decorations aren’t limited to the outside of his car. A stuffed witch rides shotgun in the passenger seat.
“She just sits there minding her own business,” Yackley quipped.
The decorations are attached with a double-sided automotive tape that withstands wind when driving quickly and doesn’t damage the car.
“It just peels off like bubblegum,” he said.
To attach some decorations, such as the black cat, Yackley has to hot-glue a small piece of flat plastic to its paws in order to provide a good base for the tape.
While good, the tape doesn’t hold all decorations.
“If I lose something during the year, so be it. I’ll go out and try to replace it, but I generally don’t do a lot of shopping for decorations,” he said. He estimates he spends about $100 for any set of decorations..
Yackley’s car has become fairly popular around Villa Park and nearby towns.
“Everyone knows him because of his car,” said Katie Rochford, a bartender at Cap’s Sports Bar & Grill, Yackley’s regular watering hole.
He nods about the notoriety, remembering that when he was running errands and stopped at a red light recently, a woman driving the car next to him wanted to know when he was planning to decorate for Halloween.
Yackley also decorates his car for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day and Independence Day.
Alex Keown is a freelance reporter for the Chicago Tribune.
Twitter: @TribLocal
