First Gangsters, Now Ghosts? I Love My Job.

Lots of folks here know already, but for those who don't know, the primary part of my job is taking care of vacant homes. I'm in real estate support services, which encompasses many things, but REO, or foreclosed properties is the biggest part right now.

I'm always on my guard when I'm in a vacant house because there could be a squatter or a copper thief in there, caught by surprise by my unexpected visit. It can be a dangerous occupation.

I have griped about having to deal with gangsters, but I seem to have come to some odd understanding with them, and things have been lots better. I have also taken some steps which, for various reasons, I don't want to delve into, but they have been quite effective so far.

So I can deal with the gangsters, but how the heck am I supposed to deal with a ghost?

I have a haunted house I'm caring for. Seriously.

I've had this place for a few months now, and it doesn't fit the description of a 'typical' haunted house. It's in a new, very upscale neighborhood, and it's fairly new, maybe five years old or so. It's not really modern, but it is pretty trendy, huge master bath, skylights, the works. (One of the worst floor plans I've ever seen, btw.)

I've come to the realization that the place is haunted gradually. First, I didn't see anything odd. Then, slowly, I started to see things that didn't happen at any other properties. I ruled out kids getting in, and Realtors showing the places because these sort of things have never happened in other properties where kids have gotten in. Realtors wouldn't bother with it, never have anywhere else. Besides, the same Realtor would have to keep on doing the same thing, and they don't show that property every week.

About two months ago, I heard movement in the attic. I figured it was just the heating ducts because it was recently turned on, but it still sounded like footsteps. I was a bit curious, but I blew it off. The next week, I definitely heard footsteps up there. I checked everything out, but there's nothing there but a small crawlspace packed with HVAC stuff.

Besides, where I heard the footsteps, there was no attic. It was a vaulted ceiling. I checked out the roof, as best I could, but there was no easy access to it without a ladder. I figured it was settling or something else.

It happened again the next week. I ran outside to see if I could find anyone, but there was nothing up there. When I went back inside, footsteps again. I left, feeling creepy. I still didn't think it was really haunted, though.

I don't think it's haunted now, I know it is.

I was there today, and I hear the steps again, and I ignore it figuring that it's the pipes, heat, something. I'm doing my checklist and I'm in the master bath when I see a guy, more like a thick black shadow of a guy, walk across the doorway behind me.

I yelled out 'Hey, you aren't supposed to be in here' and gave chase, but there was no one in the master bedroom. The only way out was the front door, down a short hall and across a large swath of pergo flooring (never install pergo flooring in your home, people, it sucks) and no one was there.

He couldn't have made it to the door without me seeing him, plus the pergo floor would have made a racket, and I heard nothing.

I saw this thing, a glance at first but I had my eyes full directed on it before it passed fully out of sight. It was there.

This house is haunted.

No need to worry unitil he/she/it calls out 'Hey, you aren't supposed to be here' and gives chase.

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Man, the way I feel now, I think I'd make my own doorway and punch right through a wall.

This is in broad daylight, now, lights on, skylights. Skylights now, this is Vegas, the sunlight is brutal here.

My wife and I were just discussing this and I recalled my son went with me a few weeks back and he was doing the checklist in the master and didn't finish it. I asked him why, and he said he was scared in there. I laughed it off at the time and finished the checklist myself. This is a huge master bath, a Jacuzzi tub, separate double shower, three sinks and two toilet bowls, a fireplace, all very open, nothing to be scared of there.

He's twelve, active imagination and all that.

Well, I'm fifty, and I'm not looking forward to going back into that bathroom next week, I can tell ya that.

Take a camera and go for a snapshot of it.

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That's not a bad idea. Maybe he's camera shy. It might scare him away.

I'd rather not see him again. Ever.

Look, a ghost isn't going to hurt you--usually. It probably is just checking up on the place, making sure you're not messing around with its stuff. Get a picture of it. it'll be fun.

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What expertise do you have on this? Have you ever seen a ghost in broad daylight? What makes you think it's not malevolent? What can and can't they do? Fill me in, 'cause I'll take all the advice I can get right now. Really.

I saw the UTMB Galveston ghost dozens of times, but it mostly just hangs out on a wall at night. It's not there in the daytime. My wife worked in the building, and she and a co-worker both saw it in the hallway one night. The co-worker quit.

She's not squeamish, and neither am I. I'm not easily spooked. (Actually, after they saw the ghost, me and two friends took an ice-chest and some beach chairs in there to 'ghost watch' while my wife was working late. She kicked us out when she discovered what we were doing 'cause she'd get fired for the beer part. Party pooper.)

Seeing that ghost freaked out some visiting friends, but it never really bothered me. It was sorta tingly feeling weird, but not like this.

When I was 15 and 16, I was dragged around to 'haunted' houses by my English teacher. I went because she was hot, but I wasn't overly impressed with the ghost hunting. Mostly, they were just dilapidated houses filled with rats. I never saw a ghost.
(I was never sexually abused by her, either, but that didn't stop me from hoping it might happen.)

I have known several people who lived in haunted houses, and I've been in them when downright strange things have happened. I related here some time back about a friend's house which was haunted, they finally moved out after some six months of problems, but they had lived there for a decade with no problems whatsoever. I saw the sand under the carpet, in a little dune stretched across the living room. It is very odd that that sand comes from the east coast, no where near San Antonio.

I have seen things that were 'eerie' and 'spine-tingling', I've seen lots more than most folks, but most people aren't dragged around southern Virgina by a gorgeous young teacher, either.

I saw this thing. Not a glimpse. I had eyes locked on it. I gave chase, thinking it was a real person. I was four, five steps away from it, not any distance at all.

It was a black mass, not transparent like a shadow, but like a person dressed in black from head to toe, passing across the 'doorway' (no door there, just a large opening, maybe six, eight feet across). That's lots of time to lock your eyes on someone walking past.

The master bedroom is quite large, so my four steps behind would have brought it into view right then. There was nowhere for anything or anyone to hide in there, no furniture, no closets, the walk-in closets are opposite the master bath. I still thought that a person was in front of me until I hit that pergo floor, and the full view of the great room. No way anyone is that fast or that silent.

I have never heard of any report of a ghost in broad daylight. I'd much rather deal with thieves and gangsters than this. I can't hit it with a pipe, and I can't shoot it.

That sorta limits my options.

I woke up with it lying on my bedside table point AT ME instead of pointing at the wall on the other side of the table

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That's the sorta thing that scared my friend out of his house in San Antonio. They had a fan which was set to one setting, he had put a blank plate over the control switch because the kids played with it, one day the fan was on 'high'. Things like that. The incident which caused them to leave was when his wife was alone in the house, she was walking down the hallway and heard a male voice behind her say 'mommy?'.

She never set foot into that house again.

But they never actually saw a ghost. Did you?

I was alone in the house one time and kept hearing doors slamming upstairs. Each time I went upstairs, a different door was open.

Yeah. There was something there.

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I know what you mean. I lived in a house in Germany which, in retrospect, we decided was haunted. There were lots of creepy things, like the stairs. Every night, the stairs would creak one at a time, from the bottom to the top, like someone climbing the stairs. My father dismissed that as the 'house settling at night'.

This was a very old German Manor house in Hahn, three stories with a basement and attic, hidden passages, bomb shelter, etc. Hitler once, or more than once, slept in the bedroom I had. Sorta creepy right there.

The odd thing was that the toilets flushed, all of them, every night all at once. My father said this was a smart German thing, that they did something with the water pressure which made this happen.

Turns out that was complete crap. No way can that be done. But, for a ten-year-old, it sounded plausible enough to me.

None of us ever saw a ghost, but there was something there.

I'll take pictures of this place next week and post them so everyone can see the place.

Like I said, it's not the sorta place you'd expect to be haunted. You'll see.

I can't post any photos of the front, or any identifying pics because that might get me into trouble with the bank's asset manager or listing agent, and it could cost me my bond, which is everything in this biz.

They are, after all, trying to sell the place, and tales of it being haunted won't help that endeavor one bit.