Ponch, after having thirteen black cats cross his path, get a bit worried about how badly his day has become when his bad luck comes into play.
To make matters worse, he unwittingly scares a little boy into hiding inside a haunted house!
And to top it all off, a ghostly lady is busy robbing the convenience stores while another woman is stealing candy bags from trick-or-treaters...
Tropes seen in this episode:
- Egging: How the robbers' escape gotten derailed... quite by accident!
- Halloween Episode: This wasn't only one in the series' run. When aired in syndication, this episode often was pulled from the original airing order to air on (or as close to as possible) October 31.
- It Was with You All Along: The woman stealing bags of candy from trick-or-treaters is later revealed to be searching for her lost engagement ring. She remembers last having it on when handing out candy to a child dressed as a skeleton and has been focusing on trick-or-treaters in that costume. When Ponch and Jon investigate, Jon checks the bowl she was getting the candy from and finds it there. It never left her house.
- Missing Child: Ponch has to save a little boy in a Haunted House. Justified that Ponch got mad at the little guy for squirting perfume at him with a water gun, and threatened to arrest him.
- Not My Lucky Day: If you think Ponch had it bad earlier in this episode, the ghostly robber's partner-in-crime had a broken arm from a run-in from a less-than-reputable debt collector at the start. After crashing his van near the end thanks to some eggs smashed on their windshield accidentally, causing them to crash, his other arm gets broken from the accident!
- Pet the Dog: Ponch finds the lost little boy in the haunted house and forgives him.
- The exchange...
(After finding Tommy hiding under a box in what appears to be the kitchen of the abandoned house...)//Tommy: Have you come to arrest me?Ponch: Oh, no... we're going to take you back home.Tommy: Will you get mad if I tell you something...?Ponch: Nah. Why?Tommy: You smell funny. - Drunk Driver: When a ghostly robber runs past him and the driver flips his car after missing her, he says to one of the officers that he saw a beautiful vision... "a pink elephant in a white nighty!
- Superstition Episode: After having thirteen black cats cross in front of him, walking under a ladder, cutting himself shaving with an electric shaver, and breaking a mirror in his locker by accident afterwards, Ponch starts to get a bit worried.
