A dishwashing ghost, an incredible UFO experience and much more on this edition of the Campfire

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TRANSCRIPT

Please note we do not guarantee 100% transcript accuracy. The below reflects a best effort. Thank you for your understanding.

Jim Harold 0:00
A dishwashing ghost? That’s just the beginning of the strange stories on this week’s Campfire.

Campfire Announcer 0:21
Welcome to our gathering tonight. Here we share stories of ordinary people who have experienced extraordinary things. Sit back, relax and warm yourself by Jim Harold’s Campfire.

Jim Harold 0:33
Welcome to the Campfire. I am Jim Harold and so glad to be with you. And Jim Harold’s Campfire is the original campfire podcast, accept no imitations. And what we do here is we have everyday folks call in about the extraordinary things that have happened to them. It could be a UFO, it could be a ghost, it could be a cryptid creature, or one of my favorites, a head scratcher. But whatever they are, they are amazing. They are true stories. And we’re so glad to share them with you today. And we have a great show on tap. 90 minutes of real spooky stories. And I hope that you enjoy it. First a couple of notes. One, if you enjoy our spooky stories, make sure you’re signed up to my free newsletter at jimharold.com/newsletter. And there is a reason I say that, more so than usual because we’re going to add a new thing to the weekly newsletter. And that is a Campfire story of the week pulled from our archives. We will have a text transcript of a past Campfire story for your enjoyment. It’s absolutely free. The only thing is you have to be subscribed to the newsletter. And you do that by going over to jimharold.com/newsletter. We don’t spam you, just every week we send out kind of a synopsis of everything going on in the Spooky Studio, the different shows we’ve released, it’s a great way to keep up. And then on the tail end of it, we’re going to add one Campfire story a week for you to read or share with your friends. So I hope that you’ll consider it, jimharold.com/newsletter. And another thing going on at the Spooky Studio is our newest podcast. It is called You Won’t Believe What Happened to Me. That is with myself and my wife, Dar Harold, and we record the first stories tonight. And they are stories that are incredible, not supernatural. But just incredible stories, for example, winning the lottery and becoming an instant millionaire, that could be a You Won’t Believe What Happened to Me story, or in my case, my house got shot up by an AK-47 When I was just out of college, that’ll–that’ll get your attention. But anyway, the point–those are perfect examples, not supernatural stories. That’s what we do here on the Campfire. But just things that happened to you that were very wild. It could be, you know, being in something like a plane crash, but escaping without a scratch. Those kinds of things, just strain stories, could be good, could be bad, could be happy, could be sad. I hope that you will join us and submit your story over at won’tbelieve.com That’s won’tbelieve.com And the first episode should go live sometime in March. And you are here to hear decidedly paranormal and spooky stories today. And that’s what we’re going to do. We aim to please with stories like this one.

Alex is on the line from Nottingham, UK. We’re so glad to speak with our friends in the UK. And Alex says he’s been listening for years and we really appreciate the support. And he has a story about living in a Victorian house in the strangeness that ensued. Ooh this sounds like a good one. Alex, welcome to the show and tell us what happened.

Alex 4:07
Thanks, Jim. Yeah, it’s great to speak to you. And so this is quite an interesting story. I’ve wanted to tell people for quite a long time. Just every opportunity I get, I’m speaking to people about it, because it’s one of those things that happened and sometimes people are quite skeptical about it. So I thought I’d kind of get it out there. So and–so yeah, we moved into a three story Victorian house. It’s in a place called Richmond, which is in North Yorkshire–in North Yorkshire in England. And I’m not sure if you’re familiar with Yorkshire but–

Jim Harold 4:36
Yeah, I know Yorkshire.

Alex 4:36
–a nice area. Yeah, lots and lots history in Richmond. So that was back in, I think around 2009. So I would have been about 12, and I moved in with my family. So I was with my mom, my stepdad, my older sister, and with a baby as well, it was my younger sister. So she had just been born very recently. And we–the day we moved in actually was the first time I’ve experienced anything with this kind of entity I suppose you’d say. So on moving day, my sister exported a–like a cork board with some multicolored pins in which I think were just left from the previous owners. And she just turned them into a happy face as you do. And so we were unpacking things upstairs, and we ended up coming downstairs to have a bit of a break, get some water. And we found that it had been turned into like an unhappy face. So rather than the smiley face that she’d done, it was–it was like a frown. And we thought that was a joke just played by someone else in the family. So maybe my parents had done it, but they were actually at the other house bringing belongings across. And they didn’t have time. So that was just something we thought was odd. And to this day, nobody has owned up to actually doing anything with that. So that was the first experience. And we didn’t really think too much of it. And for the next couple of months, to be honest, nothing much really happened. Until–it was a bit strange, I started to wake up each night at about 3am. And I know that sounds kind of cliche for these kinds of things. And it’s often in films and things you see, things always happen at 3am. But it did genuinely always seem to be around three. So whether it was five to three, five past three. And I’d wake up around that time to sounds of running up and down the stairs, which were just outside my bedroom.

Jim Harold 6:01
Mmhmhmhm.

Alex 6:12
And I was on the second floor. So it sounded like someone was actually charging up and down. And I used to go out into the corridor. And when I’d go out there, it would completely stop. And I was looking for whether it was like a cat, or I don’t know, my sister going down to get snacks or whatever it never was. And I actually remember waking up my older sister and my parents to see if they’d heard it, and they never did. So we ended up putting it down to like thin walls, or maybe the neighbors were going up and down the stairs. Or like I said maybe it was a cat. But that wouldn’t have been the case because the footsteps were too heavy for it to have been a cat. And far too frantic. So I remember bringing it up, I think the next day at the dinner table. And that’s where a couple of other members of my family started to report a few strange things. So things like doors just closing on their own. Something my mom raised was that my baby sister was tucked in each morning, despite in the previous house, her being completely messy in her cot. You know, her covers would be everywhere. But since we moved in, from day one, she was tucked in every day, which was really strange and none of us had gone into took her in. And as things went on, you know, the months continued, and I kept hearing running on the stairs. And sometimes it would be you know, from different times, but most of the time it was around that sort of 3am. And I remember sort of putting it down–like putting headphones on to drown out the noise because it was becoming so, so bothersome. My sister carried on being tucked in each morning. And eventually my mom had another baby. So she had a little boy. And he slept with them in their room. But he wasn’t tucked in. It was just my sister, which was a really strange thing. And then something that I’d recall so vividly to this day, that really freaks me out–and it freaks out people who I tell as well–is that we went out for a day as a family once, and before we went, my mum asked me to put the dishwasher on before we left. So I loaded it up with all the dirty plates and I put it on. And we left and we locked the door and left for the day. And when we came back, every item in the dishwasher was stacked up neatly on the table in size order, completely clean and dry.

Jim Harold 8:30
(Laughs)

Alex 8:30
(Laughs)

Jim Harold 8:30
The Victorian learned how to unload a dishwasher very quickly.

Alex 8:34
Yeah. Yeah, that’s the really strange thing about it. And, you know, it’s–we assumed it was a Victorian ghost and seems like they wanted to have a go. So the strange thing about that is we didn’t have a cleaner, we didn’t–nobody else was home. My other older sister was in university. So she didn’t live there. She wasn’t home or anything. And again, it’s one of those things we talk about as a family to this day that we’re just like, we don’t know what happened, we were all out. And none of us are OCD enough to have the plates stacked in size order or anything like that. So that was really strange. And so that that shook us quite a bit. And we kind of again, just got on with things. And my sister then started to hear pots and pans move in the kitchen on some nights, and we go down there, and there was no one there. And there was one occasion where my stepdad had been making cakes at about three or four because he couldn’t sleep because of the baby. But apart from that, it was–it was genuinely no one there. Which we, you know, you could hear the clanging of the pots in the cupboards and you could hear the cupboards opening and it sounded like things were falling on the floor. And so it was it was quite audible. And I remember once my sister and I were sat in the living room, just looking after the kids and we saw a figure walk past the doorframe and it was like a human figure there, quite a tall one. And we were the only ones home, and we kind of called out for our parents and they weren’t there. So the fact it kind of startled us at the same time–

Jim Harold 10:03
Sure.

Alex 10:05
–kind of confirmed that we both saw the same thing. And to this day again, we talk about it. And we’re like, yeah, no, we remember it as if it was yesterday. So–and our friends who used to come over for sleepovers and things that–they said that they’d seen similar things and heard similar things to us. So it wasn’t kind of an isolated thing. There were just a couple of other things that happened that I can recall. And one of them is that my eldest sister, she actually ended up waking up to a tightness around her neck one night, as though she was being strangled. And that only happened once. And we don’t know whether it was sleep paralysis, or whether it was anything to do with the other things we’ve experienced. But that was–that was really strange. And it was also an instance where–we had like a Jacuzzi bath, and the jets were all just–they’d gone off on their own, and the whole bathroom was flooded. And it’s not something that’s kind of easily automated, just to kind of really tug hard on lever to get it going.

Jim Harold 11:00
Right.

Alex 11:01
So that was bizarre as well. And eventually, after all these experiences, the only person who didn’t experience or believe anything was my stepdad. Because he was–he was a firefighter. And, you know, he just didn’t believe in that sort of stuff. He was, you know, he doesn’t believe in the paranormal. And I remember coming back one one day from school, I think, and he was quite shook up because he was in the house on his own, doing a bit of babysitting. And he said that on the landing, on the second floor landing, all of the doors slammed at the same time. And there were no windows open, wasn’t–wasn’t a windy day or anything like that. There’s no explanation for it. So after that, I think he kind of–he was a convert. And we ended up only being in that house for about two or three years, just because of how bothersome it was. And we ended up moving to France in the end. But we spoke to the previous owners who we actually knew previously. And they said that they had a medium in at one point, and they sensed the presence of a young maid. So that was really interesting, kind of a retrospective explanation of things that have happened, so.

Jim Harold 12:09
Yeah, it would explain a lot of it. Now let me ask is, do you think–so, it sounds like there were multiple–if there were ghosts, there were multiple ghosts. It seems like maybe some of them were a replay. But definitely, if they’re–they’re washing and drying dishes, there’s also like, sentient ghosts. Do you think it was a mix of both? Do you think they all kind of interacted, or do you think somewhere just replays? Or what do you think?

Alex 12:34
I think–I think some possibly were replays, I think in terms of, you know, like, my younger sister being tucked in, that might just be something that, I don’t know, maybe that’s what the maid would have done for the family living there. But things like the dishwasher, I think, you know, with–with a ghost that’s possibly interacting with something modern, I don’t know whether that could have been a different, a different ghost or the same one. It’s really hard to tell. But one thing I would say is that we never–apart from my sister in that kind of strangulation feeling, which we don’t know if that had any relation to a ghost. Apart from that, we never felt threatened. It just felt like things were happening around the house. And that, you know, I’m not going to complain if I don’t have to come home and unload the dishwasher. So it did us a favor in that respect. But I think there was probably multiple entities there. It was a very old building. And I imagine lots of things would have happened in the years after it was built, you know, up until today. So yeah, it’s it’s a really interesting one, funnily enough, as well, one of my friends moved in after we left, and they were experiencing all sorts of things. So it definitely wasn’t an isolated incident. And I do wonder whether they’re still haunted today from honest so yes.

Jim Harold 13:49
Really, really interesting. I love those stories and a Victorian house, which could be kind of spooky anyway, just to add on that extra layer of things that actually happened, but my favorite is the dishwashing ghost. That–that might be–that might be the title of this week’s show. Alex, thank you so much for being a part of the Campfire.

Alex 14:10
Thanks for your time.

Jim Harold 14:11
She’s only been listening since the fall. But she’s calling in with a remarkable, remarkable story. I’m talking about Elise from Oregon. We’re so glad to have her on the show. And she’s going to tell us about this very special story. Elise, thank you for joining us and sharing your experience. Please tell us what happened.

Elise 14:30
Hi, Jim. Thanks for having me. So I want to tell you a story about what happened to me in the forest in North Carolina. My husband at the time and I were there visiting some friends who had invited us to come see their new house and to go out on their four wheelers that they had just bought. It was an exciting purchase for them and we were college age kids. We were, you know, just visiting them to have a good, good, fun vacation. So we went out on the four wheelers. They drove into the forest, it was kind of like an–on a Forest Service road, we get to the end of the Forest Service road, we set up a little day camp, the boys go out and take their first turn, they only had two four wheelers. So the boys go out and take a turn, they were gone for like an hour, they came back, and then it was the girls’ turn to go out. So I followed my friend down, we kind of broke trail, we didn’t really know where we were going. But we went pretty far away from our day camp setup area. We went all the way to this place where there was like a clearing, and like a big steep exposed hill, kind of like a intermediate run in a ski area.

Jim Harold 16:05
Okay.

Elise 16:05
And she went down first, and I was just following her through the woods, because I didn’t really know, you know, I had no idea where we were. And I didn’t really know much about four wheelers either. So I followed her down. And then we decided to head back to camp. And she went up the hill first. And she made it to the top, fine, no problems. And then it was my turn. And I got up maybe a quarter of the way and realized I didn’t have enough momentum to keep going. So I turned around, went back down. And I did that a couple more times. And I just couldn’t figure out how to get up this hill. And so I tried one more time, I got about halfway up, and I got stuck. And I was facing straight up the hill. And I was at a dead stop. And I kind of yelled up the hill, “Hey I’m stuck.” And my friend yelled back down the hill, just give it gas. And so again, I didn’t know anything about riding four wheelers. But that’s not the thing to do. Just in case anybody is listening, don’t give it gas if you’re stuck on an incline stop. So I did that. And the four wheeler flipped up, straight up and back and landed on top of me.

Jim Harold 17:26
Oh, oh.

Elise 17:26
And what happened, I kind of tucked into like a fetal position. Or like a, you know, in yoga, it’s called the child’s pose, where you’re just kind of in a ball.

Jim Harold 17:37
Right.

Elise 17:38
And the four wheeler was directly on top of my back. And it was still on.

Jim Harold 17:43
Oh gosh.

Elise 17:46
I remember with like, the last kind of breath that was in my body. I said out loud, “Get this thing off of me.”

Jim Harold 17:56
Right.

Elise 17:56
And in the next couple of moments, the four wheeler got turned off. And so my head is turned to the right. And I’m looking at the hillside off to my right. So the four wheeler was turned off, and then it was flipped off of me and rolled off to the right. Not backwards downhill, like you would think gravity will take it, it flipped to the right and rolled. And then the next thing–this all happened pretty quickly. There wasn’t–there wasn’t a moment that I thought–that I had any time to think about anything. But the next thing that happened was two forearms–you know the bony part of your forearm?

Jim Harold 18:46
Right.

Elise 18:47
Two forearms slid underneath my armpits. And then I was very carefully lifted up. And when that happened, I was kind of able to get breath back to my body. Because what had happened was I’d fractured a bunch of my vertebrae and a bunch of ribs and had all kinds of internal damage going on.

Jim Harold 19:11
Oh my.

Elise 19:12
So as I was lifted up, and I kind of took a breath and it was like, ugh I can breathe. At least I can breathe, I know I can breathe. And then I was lifted in the air very carefully just for a couple feet over to the left where there was like a clear patch of mud and a little bit of snow because it had–a snowstorm had just hit. And I was very carefully then laid down. And it was so my ankles hit first, then my knees, then my waist and my chest and my shoulders. And then my head was very carefully laid down in the spot. And I just took a moment to breathe and, you know, assess what has happened and I realized I couldn’t feel anything. I–at that moment, I thought I was dying. I didn’t know what was happening.

Jim Harold 20:03
Sure.

Elise 20:05
I saw my friend who had run over to me and she was frantic. She–she actually thought I was dying. And we were way out in the woods, like, half an hour, 45 minutes, from camp. There was no trails, we were breaking trail. And I couldn’t tell you where we were, I was hoping that she knew where we were. She kind of looked at me for a second and then just took off. It took a long time to get extracted out of there. Because like I said, there was a snowstorm in North Carolina. And apparently that’s not something that happens there very often.

Jim Harold 20:45
Right.

Elise 20:45
I’m not so aware. But it was a–it was hours, hours before I finally got to the hospital. And then that’s when I was finally reunited with everybody. I was strapped to a gurney, I was waiting to go get an MRI, to see what it was that was happening. And I saw my friend. And I said, “Oh my god, Margo, thank you. Thank you so much. I don’t know how you did what you did. I don’t know how you got that four wheeler off of me. But you saved me.” And she said, “Elise, by the time I got to you, you were already laying on the ground. And the four wheeler was off of you.”

Jim Harold 21:29
Wow.

Elise 21:32
And I didn’t–I didn’t know what to say at the time. And I hit–there was so much other stuff to process with what was happening with my body and everything else, that it just kind of sat on the back burner for a long time. I did talk to her about it again before I left North Carolina to head back home. And, you know, it was the same story. We didn’t know what had happened. And when I was lifted up, I knew it was somebody’s forearms, I could tell by the feel. And I could tell by the way I was carried and it was so careful and gentle and calculated, the way I was laid down. And I don’t know. I don’t know what happened.

Jim Harold 22:15
I mean, is it? Is it a situation where you almost think it was some type of angel?

Elise 22:22
I don’t know, people have asked me what my interpretation is. And I really don’t know because to me, it felt just like somebody’s forearms. I didn’t see anything. I couldn’t hear anything. Nobody said, “Hey, you’re okay.” Or nobody tried to assess anything. I didn’t feel anybody breathing. I didn’t get a sense of if it was a man or a woman. I just know that I was helped.

Jim Harold 22:50
That’s really cool. That’s really cool. And–that’s amazing. And I’ve heard of that kind of thing before where people are in a life and death situation. And they’re somehow rescued or sometimes extracted from some wreckage and those things, and there’s no one really to account for it. And it’s some kind of divine intervention. Really interesting.

Elise 23:14
Yeah.

Jim Harold 23:14
And I’m sure that changed probably not only your philosophy about riding four wheelers, but also your–your philosophy of just about life. Did it?

Elise 23:23
It did, it absolutely did. It changed the course of my life in so many ways. And although it was a terrible accident, and you know, I’ve got a lot of broken bones from it. I’m a better person, and I’m happier because of everything that transpired after.

Jim Harold 23:41
Very interesting. Well, Elise thank you again for sharing this remarkable Campfire story.

Elise 23:47
Thank you.

Jim Harold 23:49
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Campfire Announcer 2 26:04
Keep up to date with everything at the Spooky Studio, sign up for Jim’s free newsletter at jimharold.com/newsletter. Now back to another great Campfire story.

Jim Harold 26:17
Victor is on the line from Washington State, and we’re so glad to have him with us. He says he’s always been a truth seeker. And that’s why he loves the Campfire. And he is going to tell us, well, what sounds like a remarkable UFO story. And I’ll let him tell you. Victor, welcome to the show. Thank you for joining us and tell us what happened.

Victor 26:37
Thanks for having me, Jim. So just a quick preview of where I live and what I see in the skies over here. I live off the Kitsap Peninsula in the Pacific Northwest. We have multiple military bases, SeaTac Airport, Boeing airport, Bremerton International Airport, which is a smaller one, but Cessnas, we see military jets, we see helicopters, we see metal backs. I’ve seen everything you can see in the sky that’s been flown by a human.

Jim Harold 27:11
Sure, gotcha.

Victor 27:12
Maybe not, you know, and military so. So on this particular night, it’s about five or six years ago, me and my friend were commuting home from work. He didn’t have transportation at the time, so I dropped him off at his house, he invited me in. Him and his significant other are awesome. They always invite me in for dinner. You know, I’m a single guy, they got a family, they always invite me in. So I go in, we’re just hanging out, and we go out to the backyard to have a cigarette. And when you’re walking out his backyard, this–I have to preface this, it’s about a 12 by 12 concrete slab with a 12 by 12 aluminum roof, you know?

Jim Harold 28:03
Right.

Victor 28:04
So we walk out and you go to the slab and the yard is open. So I’m always looking up to the stars. I love watching satellites go up to the sky, just witnessing everything. And so we’re standing there, and I see a red dot moving. I don’t–I don’t know the speed. If it was a walk, jog, or run, it’d be a walk. It’s just slowing through the sky, it’s on a linear pace towards us coming from the north. So I called my friend over and I said, “Hey, do you see that floating through the sky?” He says “yeah,” and it’s coming right towards us. It stops right over us. It’s a–it looks like a red dot. No blinking lights. Nothing I’ve ever seen floating through the skies around here, around my area. It’s just a red dot, it stops right over us, and we kind of look at each other like, oh, and then the same redness as the dot was, a beam shoots down and surrounds us.

Jim Harold 29:19
Wow.

Victor 29:20
The exact same color as the dot that was in the sky.Um, I couldn’t really–I couldn’t really see how far up it was, if I was just to take a guess, lower than a–lower than an airliner but higher than a helicopter if that makes any sense to anybody.

Jim Harold 29:39
Yeah.

Victor 29:40
Um, it beamed down, this red beam on us. My friend is kind of a feisty Irishman he might have threw up the bird and maybe said a couple words–

Jim Harold 29:54
(Laughs)

Victor 29:54
–to this thing which I don’t know if it was fear, if it was just in awe, or–and none of us pulled out our–I know this is talked about a lot on your show. We didn’t pull out a camera. We didn’t pull up video or nothing, because we were just so in awe.

Jim Harold 30:10
Well yeah, that would be so shocking to me, to be standing there and having a real–red beam come down on me. And being enveloped by it.

Victor 30:20
Yeah. And there’s no sound. There’s no time loss. There’s no–I really didn’t even look down to see how big the circumference of the beam, or who knows what shape it was in, you know, it was just weird. So we’re standing on the opposite side of that cor-corrugated roof that I was talking about, and it’s–the beam shoots back up. And it starts moving on its same direction again. Well, us being on that side of the roof. us watching it, we’re about to lose sight of it. So I told my friend run to the other side. And just follow it and see where it goes. You know, because it’s on the same path as it was coming into us. Jim, this place is 12 by 12. He ran over and within that couple seconds he ran over and looked up, it was gone.

Jim Harold 31:18
Wow.

Victor 31:19
I thought he was kidding. I ran over, it was gone. There was nowhere to be seen. There’s no red dot in the sky, no beam, no, no nothing. There was no flights going by that we could have mistook it from, it was–there was nothing.

Jim Harold 31:36
Just wow. I mean, that–that would be like a once in a lifetime really. I mean, that would be something that’s so unique. I mean, and you said there was no missing time. There’s nothing–nothing. I mean, did you, you know, some people say they have some kind of encounter and their life changes. Maybe they become different or they notice markings on their body or, or whatever it might be. Anything like that for either of you?

Victor 32:04
No, nothing. And it kind of reminded me of, I think a couple episodes ago. The guy called in about his grandma, and–and–and a white beam coming down from that.

Jim Harold 32:17
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I remember that. The one where–where she said that she wished her late husband was there I think was it.

Victor 32:25
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And it was weird, because I don’t recall or not if the–if the–the thing in the sky for them was the same color as the beam. That’s what–

Jim Harold 32:38
I think it was just glowing. I don’t think it was. I definitely–I don’t recall it being red at all.

Victor 32:44
Well yeah no, that’s what I’m saying. It was–the beam was the same color as this object. And it wasn’t–and one thing about the beam too Jim is, it wasn’t blinding. It was like, it’s hard to explain, maybe like a laser light at a laser show. But it wasn’t blinding at all, like we can–

Jim Harold 33:07
And then other than–than like the astonishment of what is this red beam that’s on us? Other than that, was there any kind of emotion? Positive or negative? I mean, other than just the normal oh, crap, what’s going on here?

Victor 33:22
Not really. It was just like, we were just so in awe. That, you know, I like I said, I’ve I’ve looked to the stars, all my life. I love it. And you know, around here in the Northwest, you only get a certain amount of time where you can look at the stars.

Jim Harold 33:35
Right, sure because of the cloud cover.

Victor 33:36
Yeah, where it’s not gray and, or rainy. So it was just–we were just in awe. We–I don’t know if it was extra terrestrial, military. Whatever. I don’t know. I have no clue on what it could be.

Jim Harold 33:50
Yeah that was gonna be my next question. Because you said there’s a lot of different kinds of craft that are in that area, civilian and military. But why would a–why would a military craft which you would tend would want to think would want to be somewhat cloaked or not really draw attention to itself? Why would it shoot a red beam towards a couple of civilians? Wouldn’t make a lot of sense.

Victor 34:15
And stop right exactly over us after we’re watching.

Jim Harold 34:19
And with no sound? With no sound.

Victor 34:21
No sound. No, no, nothing.

Jim Harold 34:24
Very interesting. Very interesting. Indeed. I–you gave us Victor, you gave us a great story. A lot of food for thought. I wonder what people think that might be.

Victor 34:36
And I just–I just hope, if you’re from the Pacific Northwest, or anywhere around the world, and you’ve seen something like that, call in, tell your story. I mean–

Jim Harold 34:39
Yep.

Victor 34:40
–that was, it was weird.

Jim Harold 34:48
Yeah. Yeah. Jimharold.com/campfire’s where you can do that, folks, jimharold.com/campfire and sign up to tell your story like Victor did and we’re so glad that he did. Victor, thank you for this amazing story and being a part of the Campfire.

Victor 35:04
Thank you, Jim.

Jim Harold 35:05
Warren is on the line from the great state of West Virginia: almost heaven, the mountaineer state. And we’re so glad to have him with us. And he’s been listening for about four years. And he’s going to tell us, really, about something that happened to him when he was in his early 20s. Kind of like an investigation and a very interesting one, indeed. Warren, welcome to the show and tell us what happened.

Warren 35:31
Thank you, Jim. I’ve been a huge fan, as I mentioned before, and excited to be on here. But to jump in, yeah, this story was, it’s kind of weird. I, when I was in my early 20s, I was always fascinated by- by the paranormal, and never really experienced anything that was like, solid, but I’ve always believed. And, you know, just- just wanted to experience something. And my friend and I, we used to drive around to these random places. And if you’re from the area, which I know, you’ve– I’ve heard you mention, you grew up around the Ohio area, but there’s a- there’s a small town in Kentucky, close to where I’m at. And there was this massive house that we used to pass a lot.

Jim Harold 36:15
Mhm.

Warren 36:15
And but yeah, it was an old, it was an old plantation house. And we didn’t know much about it. It was- it was abandoned. Never saw anybody there. And we decided to kind of stop in one day, my friend and I. And we went in, and it was like, we just could not stop going back. I mean, every time that we would, you know, every time we would go in, we would stay for hours, and we would stay to like one or two in the morning. And, you know, nobody would ever be there. It was- it was really creepy home. It was well taken care of, built in the 1880s, had a mysterious past. I knew it was used as a- as a hotel, like a hostel for travelers, back in that era. So a lot of history. And so we kind of started our own little group, and started going in, recording EVPs in the home. And there was once a time when we went in, and we decided, “hey, you know, let’s leave the recorder.” Because this is a mass of land, you know, big, big plantation.

Jim Harold 37:17
Right.

Warren 37:17
And we decided to leave the recorder recording EVPs inside one of the rooms, and just kind of walk, you know, walk around the property. So we go inside the room, we set the recorder down, you can kind of hear our voices, you know, fading out, when we listen back later, which we do. And we go walk around the property, and about 45 minutes we come back. And that– back at that time we used to connect the- the- the little recorder to a cord, and listen to it in my car to amp up the sounds, and, you know, get all creeped out and listen to it. But also take it super serious, because we did. We took it very seriously. We appreciated the history and just wanted to experience something. And so we were sitting outside after we had gathered together. We sat in the car with the recorder, and we turn it on, and we, you know, there’s a lot of strange voices fading out, like I mentioned, and you start hearing what sounds like these strange, like, creaking noises. It’s an old house, you know. We’re like, “okay, that’s a raccoon or something, you know?” But then it gets like completely silent, and we’re just sitting outside in front of this massive house that’s completely empty. Gives me chills thinking about it, because it was just such an eerie feeling. And we’re sitting outside in the car listening to it and start hearing what sounds like footsteps. And, you know, it was- it was kind of, like, “well, is it- is it a footstep or is it an animal?” But it was very distinctively the sound of like a boot walking on, you know, hardwood, because it was all hardwood.

Jim Harold 38:57
Oh boy.

Warren 38:58
Yeah, it was very creepy. And so we’re, you know, getting chills, and it goes completely silent again for like five or ten minutes, and we listen to the whole 45 minutes. (Laughs). But there was a moment when it got completely silent. And we heard some, like, a little bit of a ruffling noise, and what sounds like chords on a piano. Now this, again, this place is in the middle of nowhere Kentucky. Few if any of your listeners have ever been out– see you driving those backroads, West Virginia, you know, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Very dark.

Jim Harold 39:33
Yeah.

Warren 39:33
Very desolate, almost. But beautiful. But yeah, you can’t– you couldn’t see or hear anything. So definitely was– there was no piano in that home. (Laughs).

Jim Harold 39:42
(Laughs).

Warren 39:42
Completely abandoned. So– and we were just blown away. That blew us away. We were like, “wow.” we, you know, “I can’t believe we heard that.” And a couple moments later, again, like five or ten minutes after that, you hear this like massive, like, clacking noise. And this sounded like, all that we could describe it as would be, what sounded like, you know, someone’s slamming the keys down on– like an old piano, like, slamming the casing down on the keys, you know. Very, very loud. And it was incredibly, just, chilling, because it was, you know, we had the volume turned up. And it was- it was just super loud. So that was that- that was the first moment when we knew, “okay, something’s definitely, yes. Something’s up with this place.” And, you know, again, I, when I was younger, I wasn’t necessarily a non-believer, I was– I wanted to believe, but I’d never had any experiences where I was like, “Yeah, that’s definitely unexplainable.”

Jim Harold 40:43
Right.

Warren 40:43
This was not explainable. Yeah. So then there’s another portion of it, actually. So we would keep– we kept going back, it was almost like it was draining our energy. But we kept going back, you know. We just– we would take a couple other friends with us. And we eventually went back with a- with a friend of ours. After doing some research, we discovered that interestingly enough, the old man that the last lived there was a doctor: a prominent doctor in the area. And he used to play piano, and he was a poet.

Jim Harold 41:21
Ahhhh.

Warren 41:21
Yeah, and it was, it was chilling to find that out. Because, you know, all this time we, you know, we’re just like, “What is this?” So yeah, he- he played piano, and he was a poet. And so we think it was the old doctor that we heard.

Jim Harold 41:38
I love that idea of getting the validation, you know.

Warren 41:43
Yeah.

Jim Harold 41:44
Finding out it’s the doctor, and he played the piano. And it would account for all these different sounds and things. It would make a lot of sense.

Warren 41:51
Yeah.

Jim Harold 41:52
And it doesn’t have to be like, I mean, it’s certainly you know, it’s very dark. You’re in abandoned house. It’s very spooky, and it’s very scary. But it’s not necessarily anything sinister. It’s just the doctor being there, whether he was there. Do you think he was there in a sentient way? Or do you think that it was like a replay?

Warren 42:13
Well, what’s interesting is we found out that, because, like, again, it had been owned. I don’t know if I mentioned this in the beginning, but it was used by travelers. There’s a lot of history there. So you know, we think that- that also played a part in it too. But I definitely feel like we had found out that he had had, I think dementia. He had suffered from dementia. And again, these were records from like, years and years and years back. This was like maybe the 40s- 30s era. And yeah, I do. I think it was his home. You know, he loved the home. For what we knew, his the- the other family like the granddaughter that we had kind of reached out to, she said, “Yeah, we used to go there when we were younger.” Or, you know, “my mother used to go there. And you know, he was lonely. So he would play piano, and he would go up and down the stairs.” So it just makes sense, like the footsteps and then the piano. You know, so yeah, I do. I do feel like it was– he just– he enjoyed– he came around with us. And that’s why he was drawing us back in, you know. That’s- that’s how I feel about it. It was, you know, it may feel crazy to other people. But yeah, definitely. It was a an intense feeling for sure.

Jim Harold 43:23
Well, that’s the thing about The Campfire. That doesn’t sound crazy to us at all.

Warren 43:28
(Laughs). Right.

Jim Harold 43:28
We- we say, “yeah, you probably met the doctor.” No- no- no- no doubting here. Absolutely. Well, Warren, thank you so much. And I hope you’ll come back on the campfire and share any other stories you have with us.

Warren 43:42
Absolutely. I would love to. Thanks for having me, Jim.

Jim Harold 43:44
Thank you for being a part of The Campfire.

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Paranormal Podcast Announcer 46:06
Follow Jim on Twitter and Instagram at The Jim Harold, and join our Virtual Campfire Facebook Group at virtualcampfire group.com. Now back to The Campfire.

Jim Harold 46:18
Honey is calling in from Alabama, and she’s gonna take us back to the late 1990s and some strangeness that ensued. Honey, thank you for joining us, and tell us what happened.

Honey 46:30
Well, thank you for having me. Alright, so my story’s pretty short. So I’ll start with just a little information about me and the location. First, everybody around here calls me Honey. It’s a nickname that my grandbabies have given me.

Jim Harold 46:51
Awww.

Honey 46:46
I am a huge paranormal fan. And have been since I was young. I enjoyed reading different books, watching shows. And now I like listening to podcasts. And yours is my favorite.

Jim Harold 46:58
Thank you.

Honey 46:59
My family and friends. Um, they kind of– they embrace the weirdness. So like at Christmas, I get things for Imy ghost huntin’ bag.

Jim Harold 47:07
Cool.

Honey 47:08
And on the other hand, like my husband is a pure skeptic. Just pure skeptic.

Jim Harold 47:15
(Laughs).

Honey 47:17
We live in rural South Alabama, so it’s about 15 minutes away from a small town.

Jim Harold 47:25
Mhm.

Honey 47:25
Our little community’s called Wernoble, and the stretch of the road where this happened is like a small country road. There- There’s a lot of houses on that road, but at this particular spot, they’re like a mile apart.

Jim Harold 47:41
Oh, okay.

Honey 47:42
Okay, so, it’s country road, but there’s people that are out there. We’re not in the boons. Um, it was, um– I can’t remember like, it was a really dark moonless night. Probably late fall. It was misty rain. And like, it’s, like, the perfect setup for a horror movie, I guess.

Jim Harold 48:04
(Laughs).

Honey 48:04
Well, I left my meemaw’s house. Well, I left my meemaw’s house, and I was headed home, and I was alone. I didn’t have Mark; I didn’t have the kids. And I came up on this place that everybody calls, “Dead Man’s Curve,” because there’s been a lot of accidents there. And the way I was headed, I had to cross the double bridges before going up the hill into the curb. So it’s a spot that, uh, I always like slow down. And, because, you just don’t know who’s coming around the curve.

Jim Harold 48:34
Sure.

Honey 48:36
I had my lights on bright. And when I got to the beginning of the first bridge, there was something at the other end of the bridge that was standing behind the guard rails. And I guess it was like… the glowing red eyes that just caught my attention.

Jim Harold 48:54
Oh, man, that would do it.

Honey 48:56
Yeah, and they were– it was just– they were just glowing red. So I slowed down, because you know where we’re from, I’ve hit several deers. I didn’t want to go through that again.

Jim Harold 49:06
Sure.

Honey 49:06
So I remember, I slowed down, and it didn’t move. I got further up the bridge, and it just, it didn’t move. And as I got closer up to it, I could tell it wasn’t a deer. I couldn’t really see the face. But I could see the outline of his head. And it was it was just massive.

Jim Harold 49:32
Huh.

Honey 49:33
It had huge shoulders. And I could tell it was covered. It was covered in this long fur. And I could see it from like the waist up: just muscular, massive. And when I- when I think back to where it was standing, it had to be eight to nine feet tall.

Jim Harold 49:56
Oh man.

Honey 49:56
Just- just because for me to see it from the waist up. And it was stand- it was standing behind the guardrail. So in his eyes– they were they were just huge and glowing like of fiery orange red.

Jim Harold 50:13
Wow.

Honey 50:14
Yeah, it scared me.

Jim Harold 50:15
Yeah, that would scare me. And I gotta tell you, those roads. I mean, I don’t know, Alabama, but I’m familiar with West Virginia, and you got similar type country roads, where there’s not a lot of houses around. There’s not any streetlights or anything. When it’s dark, it’s dark.

Honey 50:28
Yes, it was dark, and the rain wasn’t helping. I mean, it was just misty, but it was still, it was rainy. So, um, I remember, you know, I just I freaked out. Hit the door locks, I dropped that cord down a gear. And I flew up that curve faster than I’ve ever gotten around it.

Jim Harold 50:30
(Laughs).

Honey 50:35
So, I got home, and I wasn’t– I was like, five minutes away. And I remember I’m running in the house and my husband, you know, he saw I was, like, flustered. So he asked me, you know, “What was wrong?” So I told him my story. And of course, he’s the skeptic. And he said, “Well, you probably just saw a ‘coon sittin’ on the bridge.”

Jim Harold 51:06
So he thought it was a raccoon?

Honey 51:08
Yes. But I know goodwill I didn’t see a ‘coon. I know what that was. I mean, it was- it was huge. And it was– it was just absolutely huge. So like, several years later, I was talking with our uncle Donnie, and he’s older. Back then he was probably in his late 70s, when I was talking to him. And I told him my story. And he told me, it wasn’t a ‘coon. He said, “There’s no way that was a ‘coon. You saw you saw the Swamp Booger.” And I was like, “Okay, so somebody else is seeing this thing.” And he said that, you know, he’d been in the swamps back there. And he had seen it when he was a boy. And that he– it had a horrible, horrible smell, because he was, I guess, running around in the woods, or whatever. So he could smell it. I’m really glad that I didn’t.

Jim Harold 51:54
Yeah, and that– I’d asked David Weatherly, he’s written a lot of books about different cryptids and cryptids in the south. And he said that, like, they’ll call, like Bigfoot. They’ll call it a Booger down in the south. A lot of time. So do you think it was like a Bigfoot?

Honey 52:11
I really, I do. I, just, because of the way it looked. And in the fur and the eyes and how massive it was. I really, I really do believe that.

Jim Harold 52:24
Yeah, that’s something else. You got more guts than me! I don’t know what I woulda.. Ya kept your head, ya got out of there. But, boy. Whoo.

Honey 52:35
Well, it- it’s like an experience that it didn’t- it didn’t terrify me. And it’s intrigued me. And it’s made my life so much more fun. Because, like, now we take our grandbabies camping. They’re like, from seven to two years old. And, and we go out we do Bigfoot howls and we put out apples, and we just have a fun time with it. Like at Christmas, we make our Bigfoot ornaments and hang them on the tree. So the babies have a lot of fun with it. And that’s what’s fun for me.

Jim Harold 53:05
Oh, that’s cool. Now, you said you also had a short Shadow Man story too, right?

Honey 53:10
Oh, yeah, now this was- this one was scary. And for me, this one was the one that– it did scare me. So we were asleep. It was me and my husband and probably had a couple kids in bed. I don’t remember. But it was me and my husband, we were asleep. Definitely after midnight, maybe around the early 2000s. And I’m sound asleep. And my husband sits like straight up on the bed screaming bloody murder.

Jim Harold 53:36
Huh.

Honey 53:36
This is not like him. Yeah, not like him at all. And I wake up, and I sit up. And he’s just pointing at the end of the bed. So at the end of the bed, I see this like, dark shadowy figure. But it’s like darker than dark.

Jim Harold 53:53
Ooo.

Honey 53:54
And like, it’s a– it’s like a flat person.

Jim Harold 53:58
Oh man.

Honey 53:59
And it just kinda slowly fades away. And my husband turns the lights on. Nothing’s there. We kind of talk about it. He’s describing to me exactly what I saw. And then we just go back to sleep. We get up the next morning. And we’re talking about it again. Because I’m really– it’s weird. And he said, “Well, it’s probably just a dream.” But it couldn’t have been a dream because I saw it too.

Jim Harold 54:25
Yeah, that’s right. (Laughs). And we had calls about people having the same dream or the same experience. And that’s really weird to me, you know, you know, and- and the fact he’s a- fact he’s a skeptic, but you’re right. If you both saw it, I guess it couldn’t be a dream. Or if it were a dream, that would be just as weird, because you were having the same dream.

Honey 54:48
That’s right. Yeah. I think I was- I was awake. So (Laughs).

Jim Harold 54:53
There you go. Well, Honey, thank you so much. I appreciate it. It’s been a lot of fun talking to you, and thank you for listening to the- to the show and sharing that great story.

Honey 55:03
Well, thank you so much for having me, and I can’t wait to share it with my friends and family.

Jim Harold 55:08
Thank you very much. Please do! Thanks for being a part of The Campfire.

Honey 55:14
Bye.

Jim Harold 55:15
Jamie is on the line. He’s been listening for several months now. He’s from Indiana. And he found out about us from the great Box of Oddities podcast with Kat and Jethro. So if you haven’t checked them out, please do. They have a fantastic podcast. And in fact, I don’t know when this is going to air, but we’re going to be doing another show with them and interviewing them on The Paranormal Podcast. And Jamie has a couple of stories for us. The first involves one of the most haunted places out there. I’m sure you’ve heard of it: Waverly Hills Sanitarium. So he’s gonna tell us our- his stories. And Jamie, welcome to the show.

Jamie 55:53
Thank you, Jim. It’s a pleasure to be here.

Jim Harold 55:55
Good to have you. Tell us what happened.

Jamie 55:57
Sure. So my story dates back to, roughly, 2008. My longtime best friend had recently starting, uh, dating his- his now wife. And her and some of her friends had decided to go just take a simple two hour tour of Waverly Hills. So, I got invited along to that. Well, the unfortunate part about that is was my best friend actually got tied up at work, and wasn’t able to join us.

Jim Harold 56:25
Aww.

Jamie 56:27
Yeah, so he got to listen to all the stories after the fact.

Jim Harold 56:31
(Laughs).

Jamie 56:31
So- so here I was, in a situation with my- my best friend’s girlfriend, her name is Lisa. And I hadn’t known her for very long. So that’s going to kind of play into one- one factor of the story. So she had a few friends with her. And then we were part of a larger group of about 20 to 25 people. The tour, had two different tour guides: well, there’s one in the front, one in the back. And we somehow managed to find ourselves in the back of the pack, which really worked out for us, because that tour guide that was back there allowed us to put some distance between us and the rest of the group.

Jim Harold 57:09
Right.

Jamie 57:10
Because I had my video camera. And- and he was just kind enough to kind of let us put some distance, kind of minimize the noise, and stuff like that.

Jim Harold 57:17
Sure.

Jamie 57:18
While I was recording some things. So we actually experienced a handful of things during our tour. Unfortunately, because it was 14 years ago, in order, I don’t remember. So I’m just going to kind of give you the synopsis and the severity, I guess- I guess you’d say. So the least of the experiences involved us when we were going into the morgue. So the entire group had entered the morgue, which wasn’t actually a very big room. And then we were the last to come through. As soon as we entered that room, it felt like something was crawling up the back of our neck. And- and Lisa and myself both experienced this.

Jim Harold 58:05
Yikes.

Jamie 58:05
It kind of- kind of had the feeling of like walking through a cobweb. But it was on the back of our neck. Didn’t really make sense. And I apologize if you hear my dogs barking. I’ve got them locked out in the living room.

Jim Harold 58:19
No problem.

Jamie 58:21
But- but it didn’t make sense, because there had been twenty-something people that had walked through that doorway prior to us. We just kind of laughed it off, “ah it was probably cobwebs,” but you know, in the back of our mind, we’re thinking, “eh it probably wasn’t cobwebs.” So that was the least of the experiences. At some point in the tour, we landed on, what I believe, was the fourth floor of the hospital. And we was on an outdoor patio kind of thing. And we were kind of taking this little five minute break. I was standing there looking through the window back into the building. I don’t know that it was a full moon. I know the moon was very bright, though. And that is what provided the only ambient light inside the building. So I could look through the window and see just a six foot standard construction ladder standing up, you know, it was probably 50 to 75 feet away. Yet for some reason I just kind of fixated on that ladder as as we were taking our break. And suddenly, I saw a shadow pass in front of that ladder.

Jim Harold 59:32
Mmmm.

Jamie 59:33
Very– kind of a human form but very skinny. So I thought, “okay, well that might have been my eyes playing tricks on me. Maybe a shadow from somewhere else.” So I just kept watching, and then another one passed by, and then another passed by a different direction. So I flag down the nearest person to me: a complete stranger and said, “Watch that ladder.” So they’re watching the ladder, and suddenly another shadow passes by. They see it as well. We’re both kind of freaking out. Before it’s over with, we had several folks standing around us watching this ladder and watching these shadows. Probably six to eight times pass in front of this ladder. We didn’t know there was another tour group in the building, but they had it timed where we were never on the same floor at the same time. So I don’t believe it was any other person that might have been on tour. So that was the next experience. The next one, I want to tell you about, which if anyone’s familiar with Waverly Hills, I’m sure they’re familiar with room 502. That’s where the– the story is that the- the pregnant nurse out of wedlock, took her own life in that room. So as we were waiting our turn to go into that room, I have a camera, and I was just kind of panning it around. Lisa was behind me. And suddenly, she just freaks out. I just heard someone whispering, “Yes,” and I’m out here. And obviously, there was no one directly behind her, or it would have been easily dismissed. And she was making a big deal about it. So not knowing, Lisa, all that well, at that point, I just kind of dismissed it. Because I didn’t hear anything.

Jim Harold 1:01:20
Right.

Jamie 1:01:20
And I assure her that, you know, I’ve got– I had the camera on. Perhaps the camera picked something up. Again, dismissed it, and never thought of it again, until I was going back reviewing the footage. We’re at the point of footage where I’m kind of panning around this room. Actually, I was going up to where it has 502 above the door. And I hear what sounds like a whisper directly into the camera, or the camera microphone, say, “Yes.”

Jim Harold 1:01:53
Oooooo.

Jamie 1:01:55
At that very moment is when Lisa freaked out that she heard it into her ear.

Jim Harold 1:02:00
Oh, that’s weird.

Jamie 1:02:01
I’m- I never heard it while we were- while we were standing there. I only heard on camera, but she heard it into her ear. So that gives me goosebumps just talking about that part of it. But the biggie, uh, that I wanted to talk about. At one point in the tour, we was on the floor where the- where the patient rooms were, or at least one of the floors where the patient rooms were. And we all gathered at one end of the hallway. And the tour guide asked for a volunteer. So of course my hand immediately- immediately went up and offered myself as a sacrifice, not knowing what they had in store for us. And he just said, “I simply want you to hold your arms out to your side, walk down the hallway, turn around, and walk back. Right down the middle of the hallway, turn around, walk back.” Easy enough. I walk down the hallway. Get to the end, I turn around. As I’m making my way back, I get about three quarters of the way back. And suddenly, I see out of one of the patient rooms. A shadow figure. And this figure was maybe 15 to 20 feet in front of me. And what it looked like it was doin’ with simply peeking out of the patient room to see who was coming down the hallway. I could actually see the outline of the shoulders and the head. So of course, I stopped dead in my tracks. Never turned my head towards it. I was very deliberate about that. Kept my head straight forward. And I asked the group ahead of me. I said, “Does anyone see anything in this hallway with me?”

Jim Harold 1:03:40
Right?

Jamie 1:03:40
And several of them commented that they saw the shadow figure peek out of the door to see who was coming down the hallway.

Jim Harold 1:03:48
Yikes.

Jamie 1:03:50
Yes. So that’s about when it dawned on me that I now have to walk towards this thing to get back to my group. So obviously, I was a little a little nervous.

Jim Harold 1:04:00
Sure.

Jamie 1:04:01
I- I actually turned and looked at it at that point, expecting it to go away. But it did not.

Jim Harold 1:04:09
(Laughs).

Jamie 1:04:09
Aw yeah– it only went away when I started to walk towards it. And I was just a few steps away. So when I took a few steps, it moved back into the room. So now my thought is, “Okay, did- did they set this up? You know, is there some trickery going on here in the hopes of ensuring that everyone gets a spooky experience while- while they visit?”

Jim Harold 1:04:35
Right.

Jamie 1:04:35
So I basically sped up to the room so I could try to catch somebody. Looked in the room. The room was completely void of anything. Nowhere for anyone to hide. There’s no mechanism, no cardboard cutout, or anything like that in the room. There is a door that goes from the patient rooms out onto like a patio or veranda kind of thing.

Jim Harold 1:04:57
Yeah.

Jamie 1:04:58
But with the- with the condition of the floor, the dirt on the floor, you would have definitely heard someone scurrying away had someone actually been in there in a kind of cloak or something like that.

Jim Harold 1:05:10
Wow.

Jamie 1:05:11
So I continue to walk past, past throughout, I kind of poked my head in the room, pulled my head out, walk past the group. Had a few other folks that- that wanted to walk down the hallway, no other experiences for anyone else. We didn’t see anything else. So that was kind of the big, you know, climax of my experiences at Waverly Hills.

Jim Harold 1:05:35
Very interesting indeed. Jamie, I know you have another story for us. We’ll have to do that one another time. But on this experience? Did it? Did it change the way you look at places like this? I mean, sometimes you wonder, is it all about the legend? Is it all about the TV shows? Did it kind of? I mean, did you go in kind of skeptically, or–?

Jamie 1:05:59
Well–

Jim Harold 1:06:00
–what are your thoughts?

Jamie 1:06:00
As many of your guests thi– and callers describe themselves, I’ve always consider myself, a skeptic believer. Even you know, years later, I think back to that time. I think, “did I really see that?” You know, but I know 100% certain, what I saw when I was there. So I- my brain kind of goes back and forth. From the time I was a kid, I’ve experienced things. You know, in my home growing up. I grew up in a very old home, doors closing, footsteps, and things like that. So I’ve always considered myself a believer. Have experienced little things throughout my life, growing up, and stuff like that. So while I went into that tour of Waverly Hills, hoping, I guess you would say, that- that we would experience something. I almost wasn’t expecting to experience something. If that makes sense.

No, it makes sense. Jamie, thank you so much for listening, and for being a part tonight of The Campfire, and we hope to hear that that other story in a future show.

Jim Harold 1:07:04
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Paranormal Podcast Announcer 1:10:11
You are listening to Jim Harold’s Campfire.

Jim Harold 1:10:16
Next up on The Campfire, we have a return caller, Anna. And she is a big fan of the show. She’s a plus club member. And she’s delving back, trying to listen to all the back episodes. And I think she says she’s back to 2015, at this point. So Anna, thank you for that. And also, I guess she introduced our show to all of her friends at work, her team members at work, and they all listen. So Anna, thank you for telling folks about The Campfire!

Anna 1:10:42
Absolutely. Absolutely, Jim.

Jim Harold 1:10:44
Yeah.

Anna 1:10:45
It’s good to be on.

Jim Harold 1:10:46
It’s good to have you back on the show. And that’s the thing, folks, please do what Anna did. Not onl- she’s a Plus member. She’s telling everybody about the show. And she’s coming on telling her stories. It’s perfect. So thank you so much, Anna. Now, you’re calling in today from Missouri, and you said that what you’re going to tell us about now was the weirdest, thus far, the weirdest experience of your life.

Anna 1:11:08
Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Indeed. So before I get into the story, I just would like to tell the audience of a fun synchronicity about today. The character that I’m going to open my story with, it was my high school boyfriend at the time.

Jim Harold 1:11:26
Mhm.

Anna 1:11:26
And he did pass away a few years ago in a motorcycle accident.

Jim Harold 1:11:29
Aww, I’m sorry.

Anna 1:11:31
It’s okay. Thank you. And today is his birthday.

Jim Harold 1:11:34
Awww.

Anna 1:11:34
So when I signed up to tell my story on February- for February 8th. I totally forgot that-that’s his birthday. So I’m telling a story about him on his birthday today. So Happy Heavenly Birthday, Jack.

Jim Harold 1:11:47
That’s- that’s very sweet, and we’re sorry–

Anna 1:11:50
So kinda a crazy synchronicity there.

Jim Harold 1:11:52
Well, we’re sorry for your loss. But like you said, he’s- he’s hopefully in a great place. So we–

Anna 1:11:59
Absolutely.

Jim Harold 1:11:59
–hearts go out anything that happens like that. But go ahead, tell your story.

Anna 1:12:03
Thank you. So little, tiny bit of layout of the land. Our house and the barn, sit on a hill. And below the hill is just all Valley, so you can hear any kind of noise that happens down there from up on our hill. So this takes place, my story takes place, in the fall of 2012. It was probably around 10-10:30 at night. And me and Jack were up at the barn. We were feeding the horses. And Jack stepped out of the barn, I guess because he heard something, and not soon after, he called my name. And so I ran out of the barn to listen to what he was trying to get me to hear, and it sounded– it was the eeriest sound of my life. It was so weird it- it was coming from the northwest direction, and it was– all the cattle in the valley were braying. All the horses were neighing. Dogs were going nuts. They were barking and howling. You could hear coyotes. The coyotes were even reacting to something. So it was just, Jim, it sounded like something from an apocalypse. It was crazy.

Jim Harold 1:13:10
Huh.

Anna 1:13:10
So, me and Jack were like, “Let’s go get my parents, and see what they think all these animals are crying about. What– this is going on.” So we left the barn, and we start walking towards the house, when suddenly, this noise comes from the same direction all the animal cries are coming from. And I can’t describe this noise, but I purchased a whirly tube to demonstrate the noise I heard. So I’m going to give it just, like, five go rounds since it’s like five seconds so the audience could hear the noise we heard.

Jim Harold 1:13:43
Okay.

Anna 1:13:43
You know, maybe someone else heard this. And they can come on the podcast later, and tell about it. So this is what we’ve heard. (Unworldly voice singing-like noise of whirly tube plays) Did you hear that, Jim?

Jim Harold 1:13:54
Yeah, we could hear that. Yes.

Ivan 1:13:56
Yeah. Yeah. So that’s what we heard. And it was freaking us out. So we sprinted inside, at this point. And we went and got my dad, my brother, because I believe my mom was asleep. And they came outside. And we’re all listening to it. And now the noise is all around us at once. Like you couldn’t pinpoint what direction it was coming from. And we’re standing out there listening to it, and then it drops into this lower sounding frequency. And the dogs hightail it into the garage, and they don’t let it come out now. And so I’m starting to get concerned about the horses, because, you know, we heard all those animal cries, and now there’s nothing; it’s just silent. So me, Jack, and my dad ran up to the barn. And we were feeding them, previously. And if you know anything about livestock, if you have food out for them, and you’re feeding them, they’re not going anywhere until that food’s gone (laughs).

Jim Harold 1:14:50
Sure.

Anna 1:14:50
So we went up there, and the horses were gone. They were not there. And that was very concerning to us. So we got on our ATVs and went out into the fields. We’re looking for them. And we finally found our horses all the way in the back pasture where the woods are. And they were in the back corner. And they– their tails were pinned between their legs, which only horses do when they’re really scared of something. So I don’t know what they were reacting to. But we hung out with them for a little bit, just to kind of soothe their nerves. And the noise was still going on, at this point. But it finally started to shift. This all happened probably in 30 minutes, by the way. The noise finally started to shift southwest of us. And it started to subside a little bit. So we ended up going back to the house. And then as soon as it got to the house, my neighbor ended up texting me and he goes, “What kind of machines are you guys running over there? What is going on?” And like, “We’re not running any machines! We don’t know what that noise is!” And I don’t– to this day, it’s still a mystery, but it was definitely the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to me.

Jim Harold 1:16:00
That’s weire. A weird sound. We’ve had a few weird sound calls before, but that- that sounded like, you know, what that sounded like? And- and that’s again, going above and beyond, to get one of these whirly tubes and demonstrate it. You’re couldn’t see the video, but Anna was swinging it around. But–

Anna 1:16:17
Yeah.

Jim Harold 1:16:18
— it- it sounds like the old- like the old 50s science fiction movies like The Day the World Stood Still with the- where the UFO comes down, this flying saucer, and does (imitates saucer going woOoOoo) kind of noise.

Anna 1:16:31
Yeah, yeah. That’s- yes. Yes. That’s exactly what my dad said too. It’s funny you say that!

Jim Harold 1:16:37
Yeah.

Anna 1:16:38
So weird.

Jim Harold 1:16:39
Yeah, that is strange. So what do you think it was? Do you think it was some kind of maybe alien spaceship or something? Or what do you think?

Anna 1:16:49
I don’t know. That’s my only solution to what it was. And if it was, it was really good at disguising itself, because the sky looks totally normal that night. So, it had some good camouflage on if it was.

Jim Harold 1:17:03
Very strange, indeed. Very strange, indeed.

Anna 1:17:06
Yes.

Jim Harold 1:17:06
Anna, thank you for sharing your story. And thank you for all of your support, and being a part of The Campfire.

Anna 1:17:13
Thanks for having me, Jim. Good to be on.

Jim Harold 1:17:15
Erin is on the line. She’s a return caller from New Jersey, and she has a story about her cousin. Erin, welcome back, and tell us about this very poignant story.

Erin 1:17:26
Thank you. Um, okay, so my cousin Chrissy passed away back in 2004 on Christmas morning. And it was very sudden, very unexpected. She was pretty young, she was only like, 28. And since then, she’s actually done a really great job at letting us all know that she’s- she’s definitely still around. And I could make an entire day out of telling you the stories–

Jim Harold 1:17:53
(Laughs).

Erin 1:17:53
— my family has experienced, but we’re limited on time. So I’ll just tell mine. Um, and both of my stories kind of tie into each other. Back– right after she passed away, I had been given this little wallet size picture of her. And I kept it in my wallet for a lot of years, until I got my first car. And when I got my first car, somebody had given me a guardian angel visor clip. So I clipped her picture up to my visor thinking, “Chrissy can watch out for me while I’m starting my driving adventures here.” And it stayed up there for a lot of years. And I don’t know if this detail is relevant to the story, but I’ll share it anyway. She was my brother’s godmother. So right before, it was literally the day before, my brother’s high school graduation party. I was driving home from work, and her picture fell down. And while I was driving, I kept trying to put it back up, and it wouldn’t stay. And when I got home, I just gave up and just stuck it in my center console, and was like, “I’ll just deal with it later.” So the next day was the graduation party. We had this big outdoor barbecue planned, and there was a torrential downpour. So we had to move everything inside. And, you know, the party got started and everything. Everybody’s talking and somehow, the topic of Chrissy came up, because again, she was my brother’s godmother, and it’s his party. And my aunt and uncle walked in, drenched, but also looking like they had just seen a ghost. And we thought something was wrong. We were like, “What happened? What’s the matter? Like, you know, who are we beating up?” But my aunt had a picture in her hand of Chrissy. And what was remarkable about this, is that my aunt and uncle notoriously show up after everybody else at every get together.

Jim Harold 1:18:02
(Laughs).

Erin 1:18:34
So they they did arrive late, and because of that, they had to park down the street, and around the corner, and in the pouring rain. And when my aunt got out of her car, the picture that had been in my visor was laying on the ground, in the grass, right where she was stepping out. And that was her– my– Chrissy’s parents. And–

Jim Harold 1:20:05
Oh, wow.

Erin 1:20:05
So my aunt was like shaken up about it. She– because this is several years after Chrissy had passed away–

Jim Harold 1:20:11
Sure.

Erin 1:20:11
— when she gets out of the car, and there’s her daughter’s picture laying in the ground. And it’s just mind blowing to us, because everything that had to happen for that picture to land ther.

Jim Harold 1:20:23
Right

Erin 1:20:23
Down the street, around the corner, in the pouring rain, when it was, previously, in the center console of my car, and had no way of getting out. But it had to fall down the day before, and refuse to stay back up. So she shows us this picture. And everybody’s like, “Oh, my God,” and I’m like, “That’s the picture that was in my car.” She was like, “Oh, oh, this is your picture here? You can have it back.” And I was like, “No, Chrissy wants you to have that. That’s yours now!”

Jim Harold 1:20:46
Right.

Erin 1:20:47
And it’s amazing, because I– had that picture been three feet to the left, three feet to the right, upside down facing another direction: my aunt would have never noticed, but it happened to be right at my aunt’s door. And despite the pouring rain, it wasn’t ruined. It was perfectly intact. Um, so my aunt thanked me for it. I watched her put it in her wallet, and I watched her put her wallet in her bag. And that was that. Like that- that itself was amazing to us. We were like– I– especially for her to walk in as we were talking about Chrissy.

Jim Harold 1:21:16
Sure.

Erin 1:21:16
So, um, yeah, so a couple years later. Here’s two other little details that are also very relevant. Chrissy loved butterflies. So much that like, you know, some people see pennies, and they think that’s their loved ones.

Jim Harold 1:21:31
Right.

Erin 1:21:31
We see monarch butterflies, and when, you think, that’s Chrissy.

Jim Harold 1:21:34
Sure.

Erin 1:21:34
Um, my, some relatives even got monarch butterfly tattoos for her; it was just her thing. So a few years later, I had made an appointment with a psychic in my area. A really good one. You have to book her like seven months in advance. Um, and I just made the appointment just for fun. So the days leading up to it, she’s a medium, as well. The days leading up to it, I started seeing butterflies everywhere, but like in places they didn’t belong. Like I worked in a- an appliance store. And I’m trying to show somebody a washer, and there’s a monarch butterfly that got into the building, somehow landed on the washer.

Jim Harold 1:22:09
(Laughs).

Erin 1:22:09
And I took my daughter to the beach, like the next day. And there were two butterflies that were flying around our chairs. And we’re just like, kind of moseying about our things. And I’m like, “There’s nothing for a butterfly at the beach.” There’s no vegetation, there’s sand and there’s water. Um, and then when we left the beach, I took my daughter to a store. We had to go get, you know, something to make for dinner. And as I pulled up into the parking lot, a butterfly landed on the hood of my car. And at this point, I’m thinking, “This has got to be Chrissy.” So I’m still thinking about that in the store. Oh, the other important detail about her, is that her nickname was Moo Moo, was was Chrissy Moo Moo. We called her Moo Moo for short. Um, so I’m sitting there. It’s stirring around in my brain. I’m thinking, “this has got to be Chrissy with these butterflies that I’m seeing everywhere.” And we get in line to pay, and there’s a woman on the phone in front of us on her cell phone talking to somebody, and she goes, “Is that Moo Moo? Tell Moo Moo I said hi! And I’m like, nuh uh?!

Jim Harold 1:23:09
Oh, that’s very strange. Very strange. Indeed.

Erin 1:23:13
Yes. So I called my mom, and I was like “Mom, this is, like, this has got to be Chrissy saying hello.” And she was like, “It has to be!” She was like, “When you go to the psychic on Saturday, make sure you bring that up. Like, make sure you talk to her about that.” So I’m like sitting there thinking, “I hope I don’t forget.” I’m very forgetful person. And yes, so that Saturday comes around, I was staying with my then-boyfriend at the time. And usually when I would stay with him on weekends, I would pack a bag for the weekend, and bring it into his house. But when I got there that Friday, for whatever reason, I don’t know if we just went out to dinner very quickly, but I left my bag in my car. So Saturday morning comes around, and I wake up and I’m like “Oh, I left my clothes in the car. I have to go get that.” And I go out to the car, and the bag was exactly where I left it on the floor of the passenger side– the- on the floor, in front of the passenger seat. But on the passenger seat is the picture of my cousin Chrissy, that I hadn’t seen in years. It had no business being there. Because I mean, I had gone through several cars at this point. There was a period of time where I went through a car a yea.

Jim Harold 1:24:24
Right.

Erin 1:24:24
Um, I had gone through several cars, several handbags, several wallets, even the overnight bag that I was using was brand new. I just got it with a perfume purchase. Like, it was– there was no reason for this to be there. I was literally shaking, because I mean, not like, I wasn’t scared or anything. I was just so excited, or frazzled, or something. I was like, “Oh my God,” and I had to tell by my then -boyfriend what was happening. I was like, “this is, like, I haven’t seen this picture in years. Nobody has been in my car besides my daughter.” I later asked my daughter I’m like, “have you ever seen this picture?” And she said no. So it wasn’t like she had it somewhere, and you know, left it there. It was- it was just amazing. I ended up asking the psychic when I went in there, because I was, at this point, there was no way I was gonna forget it. Um, because I was so like, you know, all over the place about it. But she told me that it was Chrissy’s way of letting me know that– she wasn’t– my daughter was about to have a very bad year, and a very rough year, I should say, in school and she really did. But it was Chrissy wanting to tell me that she’s, you know, more or less looking out for my daughter. My daughter’s middle name was Christine, after Chrissy. And Chrissy never met my daughter, but, um, yeah, so the psychic was saying that it was more or less Chrissy’s way of just letting us know that she was around, and she was gonna keep an eye on my daughter.

Jim Harold 1:25:45
Well, that’s, you know, that’s great to know that there’s a loved one out there who still loves you, still cares for you, and wants to make sure that they are still a part of your life. Even though they’re on the other side. And I believe it’s a real thing, Erin. And thank you for sharing these beautiful stories today.

Anna 1:26:03
Thank you, I appreciate it.

Jim Harold 1:26:06
Next up on The Campfire is Kate from New England. And she found out about us from our Campfire books, which is usually the opposite of how it typically works. Usually people hear the podcast, check out the Campfire books, but it worked the other way, which is very cool. That’s our five Campfire books, hopefully- hopefully a six this year. And you can find those at JimHarold books.com and on Amazon. And Kate work- works at a haunted thrift store, which seems like a great place for stories. And she says she has a great one to share with us. Kate, welcome to the show. Thanks for tuning in, and sharing this story, and tell us what happened.

Kate 1:26:46
Okay, so I’ve been at the store about 10 years, actually, I think it’s been more than 10 years now. And I had– there’s always been kind of– I’d heard stories of people who work the night shift, where, you know, there will be things falling off the shelves, and customers after they’ve closed the stores, that they can’t explain, and stuff like that. And– but I didn’t really think too much of it. So, but one morning, I had been called in for an early shift. So usually, I’ll get there around seven. But at this time, I got there around six, so we could make some changes to the sales floor. So I got to work. And I was the only car in the parking lot.

Jim Harold 1:27:41
Mhm.

Kate 1:27:42
But when I walked up to the door, one of my co-workers, she was outside. And she looked really mad. And at this time, I was also working with my aunt. And she said to me, she goes, “Oh, Kate, why is your aunt in the store? And she’s not opening the door for me.” And I said to her, I’m like, “What are you talking about? There’s no one else here.” And then I double check to see if my aunt’s car was outside. And it wasn’t. And I said, “She’s not here. She- she’s not here.” And she’s like, “No, I saw her. She’s in there.” And a couple minutes later, my aunt pulls into the parking lot and gets out the car. And she’s like, “Oh, hi, guys. Good morning.” And my co-workers face she’s like, “Oh my god, I thought you were inside. I saw you! I saw you!” And she’s like, “No, I’m right here.” So we’re all kind of like, you know, baffled: who’s here. So finally a manager got there a few minutes later. And my coworker told him, “there’s somebody inside the store.” And he’s like, “No.” So she explained what– because there’s like a long line of windows in front of the store that you could look in. So she told him where she had seen the person. So we got to get– we got to work doing what we had to do. And he came back later, and he’s like, “Well, I checked on the cameras. There’s no one in the store,” but he could just see like the clothes moving back and forth on the rack.

Jim Harold 1:29:28
So it seems like you were in a doppelganger situation, right?

Kate 1:29:33
Yes. And I have another doppelganger story too.

Jim Harold 1:29:37
Sure. Do you want to share that one as well?

Kate 1:29:39
Yep.

Jim Harold 1:29:40
Go ahead.

Kate 1:29:40
So this happened a little bit after that. I got to work around seven. Um, and I was– I usually do a lot of pricing of the items that come in. So I was at my computer, and one of my co-workers, she– it was winter. So it’s really cold in the back room. So we’re usually– we got hat, scarves, coats on. And she always wore her distinctive red hat. And she– I saw her come into the room with the red hat as I was walking out one of the other doorways to go out onto the sales floor. And then, so I didn’t think anything of it. And then I came back from the bathroom. And I didn’t see her at her work area. I was like, “Oh, that’s weird. I could have sworn she came in.” And it wasn’t until like, 20 minutes later that she was coming in. And she’s like, “Oh, hey, good morning.” I was like, “Oh, I thought you were already here.” She’s like, “No, I just got here.”

Jim Harold 1:30:26
(Laughs).

Kate 1:30:43
But, and it seems like the doppelganger thing is a theme. Because the next time this happened, um, there was– we worked with this really mean lady. And she had a very distinctive laugh. Um, that you could hear anywhere. If you were on the sales floor, and your across the store, and it’s a very large store, you could hear it anywhere. And if you were in the back room, you could hear it anywhere. So we were really kind of happy one day, because she wasn’t there. And I was joking with my friends. I was like, “Oh, she didn’t come to work today.” And we started laughing. We’re like, “oh, it’s gonna be a peaceful day.” And all of a sudden, we heard that laugh. And we both looked at each other. And we were like, “Oh, no.” And then, you know, we didn’t think anything of it. And but she hadn’t- she didn’t come to work that day. She was never there.

Jim Harold 1:32:06
Now, do you think that it’s because of the haunt- the objects? Do you think the objects– I mean, obviously, in a thrift store, you’re in a situation where you’re getting things from estate, a lot of things are probably from people who have passed. Do you think that’s where kind of this strangeness is emanating from?

Kate 1:32:27
I think so. That’s what I think.

Jim Harold 1:32:31
Yeah. You know, I’ve always been someone– going back to even when I was a teenager, I love to go thrifting. But to be honest with you now, I kind of wonder sometimes it’s like, “Ooo, am I going to bring something home with me?” But you know, there’s a lot of great stuff out there. And you know, so many of the thrift stores are so great about doing things for charity and things. So I think that’s great, and upcycling and all that fun stuff. But I do kind of wonder now, and I’ll occasionally pick something up and it’s like, “Ooh, is it got any anything riding along with it?”

Kate 1:33:05
Yeah, there’s, yeah, there was another situation. Somebody who I dated in the past, he was like, an amateur ghost hunter.

Jim Harold 1:33:17
Mm hmm.

Kate 1:33:19
And he picked up a Ouija board from our store, which that did not end well. There was some negative energy about that.

Jim Harold 1:33:27
Yeah, that would be a little scary to me to pick up a Ouija board from a thrift store.

Kate 1:33:31
Yeah so after– Yep. After that happened, anytime I see a Ouija board getting donated. I’m like, “No, no.”

Jim Harold 1:33:40
Well, Kate, thank you for your work. And thank you for sharing your stories on The Campfire tonight.

Kate 1:33:46
Thank you.

Jim Harold 1:33:47
Thank you so much for listening to the campfire. And I want to give a big spooky shout out and happy birthday to Zach from St. Louis. His girlfriend Emily emailed in and said My boyfriend listens to your campfire podcast every night and has even gotten me hooked. His birthday is February 21. And if you could give him a shout out close to that date, it would be super cool. She said thanks for making our evenings more spooky. Thank you, Emily. And thank you Zach and happy birthday, Zach. And I hope you will take my heed at the beginning of the show, and sign up to our email newsletter. Because now we’re going to be including the transcript of one great Campfire story from the past in each newsletter. We’re going to try that for a while, and see how it’s received. And I hope that you will sign up to the newsletter, for free, at Jimharold.com/newsletter. That’s JimHarold.com/newsletter. One of our Facebook friends made the point: it’s a great way to share stories with people who maybe aren’t into podcasts, or maybe people who would be into podcasts, if only- if only they knew about it, and then they could see an example of a great story. So that’ll be a lot of fun. I hope you check it out. JimHarold.com/newsletter. Another thing that I hope that you will participate in, and check out when it’s live, is our new podcast, You Won’t Believe What Happened to Me. That’s the new podcast I’m doing with Dar. And basically, it’s like The Campfire without the paranormal. Just incredible things that have happened to you, in your life. And you can contribute and be a part of the show at wontbelieve.com. That’s wontbelieve.com. And look for the first episode of that wherever you listen to your podcasts, come sometime in March. We’re going to record the first stories tonight. I’m excited. Well, thank you so much. We’ll talk to you next time. Have a great week, everybody. And as always, stay safe and stay spooky. Bye bye.

Campfire Announcer 1:35:25
You’ve been listening to Jim Harold’s Campfire. Tune in again next time for more stories of ordinary people who have experienced extraordinary things.