Woman Discovers Several Brand New Costumes in a Dumpster Behind Spirit Halloween

As soon as a pooky season is officially over, every Spirit Halloween store in the country tries to get rid of its inventory before shutting its doors for yet another year. On Nov. 1, 2023, the seasonal costume retailer had a 50 percent off sale before shutting its doors the following day.

Now, if you're already on the hunt for next year's costume but couldn't make it to the sale, don't fret because you could follow in TikTok creator Amanda's (@torppsbride) footsteps and go dumpster diving! Yes, that's right: Amanda and her friend found brand-new costumes in a dumpster behind their local Spirit Halloween.

In the now-viral video, posted on Nov. 5, 2023, Amanda and her friend went to their local Spirit Halloween, only to discover it was closed for the season. Ugh, that had to have been a total bummer!

"Got excited because it said that Spirit Halloween was open," Amanda said before looking inside and realizing the store was "definitely not open." Since she didn't want to go home empty-handed, Amanda and her friend walked to the back of the store to see if there was anything in the dumpsters — and she hit the motherlode!

"Spirit Halloween haul," Amanda joked while holding up an Ernie mask from Sesame Street. She then jumped into the dumpster, searching for more costumes. Amanda came across several ensembles and accessories, including:

• A Naruto wig
• An inflatable Looney Tunes Tasmanian Devil costume
• A Scooby-Doo costume
• A pair of Art the Clown hands from Terrifier
• Harley Quinn's bat
• A brown wig (which she tries on)

Amanda also found a lot of empty packages, and she speculated that some of the workers broke quite a few items on purpose because "they don't want you to have it." We wouldn't put it past them, honestly!

In the end, Amanda condemned Spirit Halloween for being so "wasteful."

Amanda's video has been viewed more than 330,400 times and counting as of this writing; it also received over 550 comments from fellow TikTokers who shared what they would've taken from the dumpster.

"I'd still take the mugs and make some handles, lol," one person said. A second TikTok user agreed, claiming that the "broken cups could be cute lil makeup brush cups." That's such a clever idea!

Many revealed that they would've taken every costume home.

"Bro, I would take everything," a TikToker commented alongside a loudly crying emoji.

Another person shared, "The way I'd be taking all of it."

"I sell online, and all I see is money, so I would [have taken] it all," a third person added, to which Amanda replied, "I'm a hoarder, so honestly it was tough, but it was mostly garbage/broken and covered in blood, so I didn't [want to] ruin my car." Yes, we love a responsible queen!

Additionally, a few costume store employees shared what their stores did with the leftover inventory.

"OMG, when I worked there, we had to destroy literally everything," one person disclosed. "It hurt ripping all the costumes to shreds just bc of a small hole or missing piece."

A second Spirit Halloween worker responded, "At my store, we only threw out the ones that were damaged, and costumes that we're partly stolen ... but very good finds, haha."