The United States Postal Service acknowledged on Friday that one of its mail carriers did not report a corpse at a Denver home because he mistook the body for a Halloween display.

"We do know the carrier delivered mail to the house that day, and he remembered seeing something he thought was related to Halloween," the postal service said in a statement. "When the carrier learned that was not the case, he was shocked and extremely upset."

The local ABC News affiliate reported that the dead man, Dale Porch, 46, collapsed and died November 2 on his porch steps after returning home from his night shift job.