If you're ever driving through Texas and happen to spot a bloodthirsty doll on the loose, call the police: His name is Chucky, and he's been accused of kidnapping.
That might sound like a joke, but in January 2021, the Texas Department of Public Safety issued an Amber Alert alleging that exact scenario. Apparently a "test malfunction," the alert, which was sent out three times, described the doll from the 1988 horror movie Child's Play as just over three feet (.9m) tall. The "suspect" was also described as wearing "blue denim overalls with multi-colored striped long sleeve shirt (and) wielding a huge kitchen knife."
His kidnapping subject: Glen Ray, the doll's 5-year-old son from the sequel, Seed of Chucky. The public safety department apologized for the mistaken alert. The Amber Alert system, which originated in Texas in 1996, is used to ask the public for help in finding abducted children.
What a doll:
- Chucky's "real" name is Charles Lee Ray, which combines the names of three infamous men: Charles Manson, Lee Harvey Oswald, and James Earl Ray.
- Don Mancini, the creator of Child's Play, said he got the idea from the Cabbage Patch Doll craze of the 1980s.
- Actor Brad Dourif voiced Chucky in every movie until he was replaced by Mark Hamill, aka Luke Skywalker, for the 2019 sequel.
