--- title: Scary Dementer Drone Halloween Prank PHOTOS description: In a move both terrifying and clever, a Wisconsin man has attached a skeleton resembling a dementor from Harry Potter to a drone as a prank. canonical: https://time.com/4535589/dementor-drone-halloween-prank/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-18T20:15:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:37:44.522Z og:title: A Man Attached a Dementor to a Drone for a Terrifying Prank og:description: Expecto patronum! og:url: https://time.com/4535589/dementor-drone-halloween-prank/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt16829a9ab43a4777/6988aa86cd1bba42b3702c0e/dementor-drone-prank.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: dementor-drone-prank og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Man Attached a Dementor to a Drone for a Terrifying Prank twitter:description: Expecto patronum! twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt16829a9ab43a4777/6988aa86cd1bba42b3702c0e/dementor-drone-prank.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Man Attached a Dementor to a Drone For a Terrifying Halloween Prank, People React Accordingly > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, twice weekly), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=15b0ed7f-9faf-4360-8461-4aa26d82f60d&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Oct 18, 2016 8:15 PM UTC  (Credit: Zac Crueger / Twitter)  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Oct 18, 2016 8:15 PM UTC In a move that’s either terrifying or maniacally clever, a Wisconsin man has been flying a menacing, dementor-esque figure via drone, thus [upping the ante when it comes to Halloween pranks this year](http://entertainment.time.com/2013/11/05/sadist-jimmey-kimmels-halloween-prank-is-back-and-the-kids-arent-getting-any-wiser/). Twitter user [Zac Crueger](https://twitter.com/ZacCrueger?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) posted photos of a flying skeletal figure cloaked in black, which many identified with [the bone-chilling dementors from Harry Potter](http://time.com/4432243/harry-potter-cursed-child-callbacks-easter-eggs/); it turns out that the man behind the prank was none other than his uncle, who’s been flying the dementor drone around southern Wisconsin. Naturally, people reacted accordingly to the now-viral Halloween trick, with some even worried that it might be a real person hanging from the drone. Crueger took to his Twitter to reassure people that it wasn’t a real person and that a video of it will be coming soon. Until the video comes, it might be worth taking the recently released [patronus quiz on Pottermore](http://time.com/4504169/patronus-pottermore/), just in case. > [](https://twitter.com/ZacCrueger/status/788181473098596353) > [](https://twitter.com/ZacCrueger/status/788127545556369409) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4535589/dementor-drone-halloween-prank/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4535589/dementor-drone-halloween-prank/"},"headline":"A Man Attached a Dementor to a Drone For a Terrifying Halloween Prank, People React Accordingly","datePublished":"2016-10-18T20:15:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:37:44.522Z","description":"Expecto patronum!","url":"https://time.com/4535589/dementor-drone-halloween-prank/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Entertainment","Harry Potter","Culture","halloween"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt16829a9ab43a4777/6988aa86cd1bba42b3702c0e/dementor-drone-prank.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt16829a9ab43a4777/6988aa86cd1bba42b3702c0e/dementor-drone-prank.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"dementor-drone-prank","caption":"","creditText":"(Credit: Zac Crueger / Twitter)","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4535589/dementor-drone-halloween-prank/","name":"A Man Attached a Dementor to a Drone For a Terrifying Halloween Prank, People React Accordingly"}}]}] ```