Ghost hunters

Those of you who have popped in here and there may remember this call of paranormal activity at an old building in town. If not, check it out - I'll wait.

Done? Okay good.

The other night, we got an alarm for the same building. I got there first and watched the building while I waited in the shadows for backup to arrive. The alarm siren was blaring at the rear of the structure. I observed a figure move across several of the windows on the second floor, back lit by the hallway lights. Once backup arrived, we started in.

The front door was unlocked, but the alarm active. Systematically, we began clearing the building. We could hear footsteps on the second floor - Deja vu. As we proceeded up the stairwell, and started clearing the darkened rooms on the second floor, my flashlight started to strobe, went dim and then died. This is unusual. When it dies, my LED Stinger normally just gets dimmer until it goes out. To get the strobe function to work, you have to manually press the button quickly.

We finished checking the building and, just like the previous time, found nothing. We spent 35 minutes checking and double checking. We looked under desks, in tiny closets, and cabinets. We searched bathroom stalls, large paper shredding bins, and in every nook and cranny we could think, regardless if a person could fit there or not. Nada. Zip, Zero Zilch.

As we walked outside to await the arrival of a key holder, my partner said "Hey you're flashlight just popped on." I looked down and sure enough, my Stinger was now shining bright as could be in the holster. I took it out, clicked it off and back on again without a problem.

Of course, none of this stuff makes the report because who wants to get sent to the psychologist who is a skeptic and be labeled a nut job or worse, be put on medication that you don't need.

Who you gonna call?

I shared this story with friends before but never put the pen to the paper so to speak. Here it is for your reading pleasure.

A while back, myself and another officer were assigned to a burglary alarm at building that was a part of a turn of the century (early 1900s) tuberculosis hospital that has since been converted to office spaces.

Recalling your American History, you'll remember that doctors didn't know much about TB back then and as a result, people that were diagnosed were locked up in these sanatoriums where they had experiments performed on them and were basically held until they either got better or died from the disease. It's obvious that there was suffering,pain, and death at these places, so I'd have to assume that this building probably wasn't much different. If there ever were a spot that housed ghosts or paranormal activity, I'd bet on this one.

Any police officer can tell you that these burglary alarm calls are pains in the ass. 99.99% of the time, it's the wind or a faulty system. Still, we've got to respond and investigate, no matter how annoying. Myself and the other officer, Andy, both arrived at relatively the same time blacking out our vehicle lights. I headed to the back and he to the front to look for any signs of intrusion. I could see the lights in the hallways on, but that wasn't unusual. I didn't find anything out of the ordinary, but Andy radioed that the front door was locked, but ajar. I headed back to the front and notified dispatch that we would be entering the building and to maintain radio silence. The signal for a priority call went out over the air and the radio fell silent as Andy and I entered.

This building had three stories, two main floors, and a walk up attic. I knew from previous calls to the building that there was one stairwell to the upper floors, the only other way out being a rusty old fire escape around back. Andy took the hallway left as I began clearing to the right, checking in offices, closets, and under desks for an intruder. As I made it to the end of the hallway, I heard distinct footsteps walking above me towards the direction that Andy had gone. I made eye contact with him from down the hall and he pointed towards the ceiling, indicating that he had heard the same thing. We both began ascending the old wooden staircase, carefully trying not to make creaking noises, all the while scanning for a possible ambush. Once we reached the top of the stairs, we again heard someone walking to our right, followed by a door shutting. With the fire escape to our left, and us between the stairwell down and the burglar, we slowly began moving and clearing towards the noise we had heard. Room after room, we found nothing, our adrenaline surging as we came to the last three doors. "This is it," I thought. This guy has to be in one of these three rooms. The hair on the back of my neck and arms was standing straight up as we cleared the last two offices, leaving only a hallway common bathroom.

As we approached, the door swung open, then closed. We rushed in, guns drawn and cleared the two-stall bathroom with out finding anyone. Andy and I just looked at each other. Back in the hallway, we now heard footsteps on the stairwell, heading up to the attic. Tossing aside all tactics and safety, we sprinted back to the stairwell and up to the empty attic, where we again found nothing. Heading back down, we searched the remainder of the building and didn't find anything. After contacting dispatch and giving the all clear, we exited the building, pushing shut the front door behind us.

Andy and I both agree on what we heard and what we saw, so I have to believe that I'm not totally nuts. Although not my only experience with the paranormal, this one certainly solidified in my mind that ghosts do exist.