It was a dark, windy night back in 2002. Glendale Police were called to a silent alarm at a fancy house in a nice hillside neighborhood

It was a dark, windy night back in 2002. Glendale Police were called to a silent alarm at a fancy house in a nice hillside neighborhood. When they got there, the strong wind had knocked out all the power in the area.

The front door of the house was wide open. No one answered when the officers knocked or shouted, “Anybody here?” So they went in with flashlights. In the living room, they found something shocking.

A fake body lay on the floor with what looked like a bullet hole in the forehead. To the officers, it looked real — someone was clearly dead, and it had to be murder. Before they could lock down the scene, they had to search the house to make sure the killer wasn’t still there. They broke down doors and looked in every place someone might be hiding.

While they waited for the Los Angeles County Coroner to arrive, the officers tried not to mess up any possible evidence. They left the “body” right where it was.

A little while later, the owner of the house, Jerry Quist, came home. He was surprised to see flashing police lights, patrol cars, and even the coroner’s van outside. But just before he arrived, either the police or someone from the coroner’s office realized the truth.

There was no murder. No crime. No dead body. Just a very realistic prop.

Now, Jerry laughs about the whole thing. In a strange way, the event showed just how good he is at his job — he had fooled the police without trying.

“If the power hadn’t gone out, they probably would’ve seen it was just a movie prop,” Quist said. “I made it for a film called Gigli with Ben Affleck.”

That’s Jerry Quist in the photo, sitting next to his fake murder victim.

After filming ended, he kept the prop body at home, just in case the crew needed to re-shoot any scenes.

Once the movie came out in 2003, he said it was safe to take the fake body apart.

Jerry Quist is a well-known makeup artist and head of makeup departments. He’s worked on many films like Red, Fast and Furious, Tropic Thunder, and The Sixth Sense. But he never thought one of his props would end up in a real-life police scene.

“It was my fault for not closing the front door when I left that night,” he said. It turns out the wind had blown the door open, set off the alarm, and knocked out the power — setting off a very dramatic chain of events. Continue reading