I was reading on Shadowlands (great ghost story archive) and I ran across this amazing story. I don't know if the story was just a hair-raising experience alone but this woman is also an excellent writer - I was captivated!
Well I'm reposting it as I saw it on their website - it's a fantastic read and I couldn't fathom living through what their family did - how scary!
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#222
By: sandymay62@hotmail.com
The following is a true depiction of our adventures living in a haunted house. Although I have been called crazy by more than a few people with regards to this story, I assure you the events described herein are true and actually did happen. I share them now with you, as best I can recollect.
#222
In 1994, my husband and I moved our family (4 kids - aged 3, 6, 10 and 14) to a small seaside town on the east central coast of Florida. Wed found our dream home -- 4/2, in-ground pool, 2600sf, priced 20,000 under market value, less than 3 miles from the beach -- Perfect! It was a little run down, but we figured what we saved on the purchase price we could put into fixing it up. I was a good thing we were in that mindset. Almost immediately, our nightmare began.
On our 3rd night in the house, there was a horrendous thunderstorm, one of those tropical blasters we often get down here in FL. The next morning I awoke to discover that we had lost a couple of trees to the storm. The first was a 40 foot cottonwood tree that stood off the side of the front porch. It was close to the house and had branches that hung well over the roof. It fell in an eastward direction across the front yard (the house faces due south) leaving a 5 foot crater in the yard. There was only one place this tree could have fallen and not hit anything and that is where it fell. The branches did not even scrape the roof or gutters going down. It was weird. It gets weirder.
The other was a lemon tree growing in the backyard. It was a much smaller tree, about 8 feet tall with a 5 inch trunk base. It had fallen in a westward direction, exactly opposite the tree in the front yard. It had also been uprooted. Since it was a mature tree and bore fruit, I decided to try and save it. I dug out the hole and re-planted it. Three days later, I found the tree uprooted, lying on the ground in the same westward direction. I chalked it up to the kids, and re-planted it, again. This time I tied it to stakes to help hold it up and let it take root. Six days later, I found it again, uprooted, lying westward. The stakes and wire I had tied it up with were gone -- not lying on the ground with or near the tree -- just gone. I questioned the kids. They claimed to know nothing. I tried a couple more times to save this tree only to find it again and again uprooted and lying westward. I finally gave up on it.
Another interesting tidbit about the trees: there were 3 citrus trees in the backyard, an orange, a tangerine and a lemon. We lost the lemon tree to the storm, but -- heres the strange part -- the orange and tangerine trees never bore one piece of edible fruit the entire time we lived there. The trees were full of fruit that looked good on the outside, but every piece was rotten and foul-smelling on the inside. Yuck!
In the meantime, things were going weird inside the house as well. We immediately started having trouble with all things electrical. It was really strange. We would get what I call dead zones throughout the house. Nothing electrical would work within that zone -- all the light switches and electrical outlets would be dead. It was completely random and would last for several days or even weeks. First it would be the foyer and living room, then it would move to the hall or the back porch or to one of the bedrooms. There were times when weve had to use extension cords to keep the refrigerator plugged in! We replaced fuses. We replaced breakers. We replaced wiring. Hell, we replaced the entire fuse box! Nothing worked. It continued, off and on, until the day we moved out.
Next came the appliances. Every appliance in the house died a sudden and systematic death. It started with the garbage disposal. I was cleaning up after dinner and was about to turn on the disposer. As I leaned over to turn the faucet on, I caught this rancid smell coming up from the drain. I have never smelled anything like it before or since. I flipped the switch for the disposer. It immediately started making God-awful noises. I backed up. Good thing, too. A large metal thing came whizzing past my head (I actually felt the breeze) and knocked a chunk out of the cabinet on the opposite wall behind me. It turned out to be one of the blades. From there it went downhill. Next came the dishwasher, then the stove, the refrigerator, the washing machine....you get the picture. I lived in this house for 5 years and went through 2 garbage disposals, 2 dishwashers, 1 stove, 2 refrigerators, 3 washing machines and 1 dryer. Did I forget to mention and endless tirade of alarm clocks, toasters, telephones, and every other small appliance you can think of?
But wait! It gets even better! One afternoon, I was coming back from picking the kids up from school. I hit the garage door opener and the door went up. No problem. As I started to pull in, the entire door suddenly came crashing down from the ceiling. It missed the car by mere inches. I called the garage door company. They put up a brand new door. New hardware and rails, too. Three weeks later, it came crashing down again. They put it up again. It came down again and so on. No one could explain why it kept falling. We ended up in a lawsuit with the garage door company because they refused, after a while, to come back and work on it anymore. We eventually stopped using the garage for anything other than storage.
As if all this werent enough, we started getting a lot of interference on the phones, the televisions and on the computer. In addition to turning on and off by itself, the TV would cut in and out -- usually just static or else the screen would blank. Same thing on the computer. Files would also go missing on the computer and, every now and then, it would just freak out completely. Restarting it did no good. I went through 3 hard drives, 2 modems and 2 motherboards in 5 years. Add to that 2 printers. Starting to see a pattern here?
The phones were what was really creepy. Nearly every time you used the phone, at least once (sometimes more), a loud burst of static would cut in. Sometimes all you heard was the static. Other times you could hear voices through the static. They were always garbled and you could never quite make out what they were saying. Sometimes. Once -- and this one still sends chills down my spine -- I heard a male voice say hello to me and call me by name. Then, laughter. I hung up on who I was talking to. The static and the voices could be heard on both ends of the line. People would often ask me what the hell was that? or did you hear that? while on the phone with me. Creeeepy!!!!!!!!!!
The phones were also often victims of the dead zones. The phone company replaced -- not repaired -- replaced the phone jacks and wiring in this house 8 times over a 5 year period. Thank God for that inside wire maintenance plan! It got so I knew most of the BellSouth repairmen by name. They could never fix it, though. The phone problem also continued, unabated, until the day we moved out.
Now, keep in mind that all of these things happened within the first year or so of our living here. We were convinced that we had bought the house from hell! Well, it was around this time that I began to take notice of what (or should I say whom) was causing all the trouble. My children noticed much sooner than I did, but were afraid to tell me about it. They have since shared many of their experiences with me. I wont get into their tales, right now. Ill just concentrate on my own experiences.
It all started (for me) with a shower. What is it about bathrooms, anyway? I was in the master bath and just rinsing the soap out of my hair when I heard a loud knock on the shower door. It spooked me. I turned to look. Nothing there. I opened the shower door. Again, nothing there. Now, being a mom with 4 kids, I have learned never to take a shower without locking the bathroom door. I assure you, I was alone. I just didnt feel alone. I dismissed it, however, and continued with my shower at a somewhat quicker pace. Sure enough, another knock came, same as before. Since I have had experiences similar to this in the past, I figured the best thing to do was to confront the spirit and tell it to leave me alone. Most of the time this works. I defiantly faced the shower door and said, Okay, knock it off! No sooner had the words left my lips than the lights went out. BAM!
So here I am, naked, wet, water running, standing in the dark ready to jump out of my skin! If anything had actually touched me at that moment, someone would have had to summon the little men in the white coats! I eventually gathered enough courage to turn off the water and slowly feel my way down the wall to the door. When I got to the door and opened it, I discovered that the lights were off in the master bedroom as well. It stayed that way for 2 days. Dead zone in the master bed and bath!
It was like we were living in the middle of a virtual cornucopia of paranormal activity here. We had apparitions. We had poltergeist activity. We heard voices both inside and outside the house, not to mention through the phones and radios. Lights and TVs and stereos would turn off and on by themselves -- you know the drill. But, lets slow down a minute. I dont want to give the impression that this was going on 24-7-365. It sort of came in waves. A kind of ebb and flow, if you will. I also believe that there was more than one spirit residing in this house. In fact, I believe there to be several. This is where the story gets a little complicated, so Ill try and explain as best I can. Stay with me!
The majority of poltergeist activity (things moving around, pounding, knocking on shower doors - you know, the scary stuff) were more prominent during the holiday months, from about October until January. Even then, they werent occurring every day, just every now and then. This spirit liked to scare you. It also liked the element of surprise. Things would be quiet for awhile and then -- BOO! Usually when you were alone (naturally). This one liked to keep you on your toes! Every once in a while, though, it would cause you to pack up and go spend the afternoon at the mall or the movies.
The telephone and electrical problems not withstanding, the mainstays were a large shadowy figure that would pass in front of the picture window in the front of the house. It would always pass from left to right, and then a few minutes later, would pass back from right to left. I saw it everyday, sometimes as many as 5 or 6 times. At least it was outside.
From about late spring through the end of summer, you would often hear the voices of two men arguing in the backyard on the far side of the pool (under the citrus trees), usually around dusk. They would really go at it -- screaming, cursing, scuffling. As soon as you looked out a window or stepped onto the back porch it would stop and there would, of course, be nothing. The first time we heard it, my daughter and I thought that the neighbors were fighting. We were literally out in the backyard peering over fences! Again, at least they were outside.
We also had a Peeping Tom that would stand outside my oldest daughters bedroom window. Just stand there and smile. He was a solid apparition, none of this mist or transparency nonsense. This guy looked real. He was a thirtyish man dressed in dark slacks, a white button-down shirt and tie (office attire), and had dark hair, bushy eyebrows and a moustache. The first time I saw him I actually started to walk up to him and ask him what the hell he thought he was doing peeping in windows. He looked right at me and smiled, then promptly disappeared. Ive seen him exactly twice. My daughter says she would see him a couple of times a week or more beginning from the first night we slept in the house.
There were also spirits residing inside the house with us. The most prominent was male, I dont know his age or even how I know he was male -- I just got the distinct feeling this spirit was male. Hes the door knocking, light switching guy I met in the shower. This one seemed to have an affinity for me, much like the Peeping Tom had an affinity for my daughter. Go figure.
In addition to flipping light switches and knocking on doors, one of this spirits favorite tricks was to sit down next to you on the sofa while you were watching TV. I had a leather sofa and loveseat, so it was obvious whenever he would sit down. You could hear the leather creak and could see the depression in the sofa cushions. If you would move to another seat, he would follow and sit next to you again. Every once in a while he would actually reach out and touch you. I have felt him, at different times, rub the back of my neck, squeeze my knee and put his hand over mine -- all while he was sitting next to me. I had a problem with this. Each time I would jump up screaming Dont touch me! -- Im sorry, this really freaked me out. I cannot abide the touching. Eventually, it stopped (the touching part, anyway). He did have a dislike for my husband, however. He used to lock him out of the bedroom quite often, even locked him out of the house on several occasions.
The guy who showed up around the holidays was a pretty malevolent spirit. Like I said, this guy liked to scare you. His spirit was strong but of relatively short duration. Thank God! I also think that this was the voice we all heard on the phone, but I cant be sure (maybe it was the one who liked to squeeze my knee). Who can tell?
Now, at this point Im sure that most of you are dying to ask why we stayed in this house, with all this interesting stuff going on, for 3 years. Actually, it was 5 (more like 4 and a half). Next question: Why didnt we pack up our belongings and get the hell out of dodge? Good question.
It was more a matter of having to stay rather than wanting to stay. At this point we were up to our eyeballs in the house. We had to take out a second, and then a third mortgage to pay for the electrical repairs along with some plumbing and pool repairs (which I will get to in a minute). This, after having only lived in the house for about 3 years. Add to that the everyday expense of feeding, clothing, educating and sheltering a family of 6. Enough said. Sometimes that prize behind door number 3 is just a turd in a box.
We were learning to live with it as a family. What other choice did we have? After a while, it became sort of routine. Its hard to explain. After a while, you come to know that someones going to knock on the door when you get a shower, you expect it. When you hear fighting in the backyard, you dont even go to the window anymore. All the electrical and telephone nuisances became a standing joke after a while. Most of the spirits seemed harmless enough -- I mean, they never tried to do anything other than annoy or scare us. They never tried to do us any real harm. The spirits usually only messed with you when you were alone. One advantage (at least in this instance) of living amongst a large family is that there is no such thing as privacy. Alone time is often scarce. Of course, every once in a while, I would step on one of my kids getting out of bed because theyre lying on the floor beside me or because weve spent the night 5 in a bed. We do what we gotta do.
So now were up to summer 1997. This is when things really started to pick up. My oldest daughter (then 16) was having a sleepover with some friends -- 3 to be exact. I had to drive one of the girls home at 2:30 in the morning because she was hysterical and refused to stay the rest of the night at our house. She saw the Peeping Tom in the window. What I didnt know then, but later discovered, is that the girls had been playing with a Quiga Board. Not a good idea. Especially in this house. More especially if you are a group of kids and have no idea what you are doing.
Things got gradually worse over the next 18 months or so. Two more tragic financial events occurred back to back near the end of that summer. Suddenly, one afternoon, for no apparent reason, the pool filter exploded. It was something to see. It blew the top of the filter housing about 50-60 ft straight up in the air! It landed on the roof. So, okay -- $560 for a new pool filter. The following week the pump motor froze up. Okay -- another $380 for a new pool pump. Lets not forget to tack on installation. I certainly dont know how to install a pool filter, do you? Dont forget, we also have to fix the roof. O joy!
Now, for benefit of those of you who dont own a pool, let me fill you in on what a pain in the @#%$ it is to have your pool equipment down and not working. It doesnt take long for the water to go funky. It starts to grow algae. In the heat of summer in Florida it can start to look like a catfish pond in about a week. So in addition to repairing the equipment, you now get to spend the next week or so riding a brush attached to a long pole and pouring about $80-$100 worth of chemicals in twice a day on a daily basis until you can begin to see the bottom of the pool again! Oh, sorry. Im digressing.
Within 2 months of the pool equipment disaster, the plumbing started acting up. First, the toilets. When you flushed, raw sewage would back up into the toilets, sinks, tubs and showers. Time to call Roto-Rooter! That worked for awhile. A couple months later, same thing. Time to call Roto-Rooter again!
Three days after the Roto-Rooter man left, the plumbing exploded in the master bathroom. Three weeks after that, and while the master bath was still under repair, the plumbing exploded in the other bathroom. It was awful. It happened in the middle of the night. We woke up to find 3 inches of water covering about 2/3 of the house. There was a river of water running out the back door onto the covered porch. It got everything -- carpets, walls, furniture, clothes, 2 TVs, 3 stereos and the computer.
This was also a financial disaster. The insurance paid us roughly $12,000 for about $35,000 worth of repairs. Ever since Hurricane Andrew hit south Florida, insurance coverage in this state is a nightmare. It is horrendously expensive and the coverage is squat. The insurance company said something about pipes not being covered because they were considered a maintenance item. A maintenance item? Please. I ask you, when was the last time you opened up your walls and checked your pipes? Sorry, digressing again.
The bad news about the plumbing was that the house sat on a concrete slab. All of the pipes and plumbing were poured into the slab, naturally. So now we have 2 choices: dig up the floors and the underlying concrete slab to find the breaks and repair the pipes, or cut off the old plumbing system and re-route all new pipes through the attic. Option number 2 was cheaper. Now we embark on a six month long construction project. Water on, water off. Electricity on, electricity off. Old carpet out. New carpet in. You get the picture.
The spirits, naturally, couldn't resist messing with the hired help. Over the next 6 months, we had 3 different plumbing contractors. The first guy left for lunch and didnt come back. He called me 4 days later (after I had left about a half dozen messages on his voice mail) and told me I needed to look for a new contractor. He would never say why. He gave me back my deposit, too. We also had 3 different drywall crews and 2 different flooring crews. These guys just didnt like working in my house for some reason!
Once the plumbing was in and the drywall put up, I started on the painting/papering stage of our little renovation project. One morning, as I was hanging paper in the dining room, the doorbell rang. I opened the door to see a tall, gaunt, black man standing outside the security gate. [The front porch was entirely enclosed by wrought iron security bars and a gate. The kids referred to it as the cage. On this particular day I was glad that it was a locking gate.]
This man proceeded to tell me that he was a Jehovahs Witness and would like to come inside and talk to me about his faith. Hallelujah! Naturally, I began making polite excuses. This guy wouldnt take no for an answer. He kept insisting that I let him inside. The more I would decline, the more insistent he would become. This began to annoy me. I rather gruffly told the man that I was not interested and would not let him come inside my house. I turned to go back inside. As I reached the front door (about 6 ft from the gate), the man suddenly said, Open the gate. It did not sound like a request. I turned to confront him and there was no one there. I walked to the gate. He was gone -- not on the sidewalk, not in the driveway, not on the street -- gone. All I can say is if this guy wanted in, he wasnt getting an invitation from me.
By fall, we were back to some semblance of order. The construction phase had come and gone and things were being put back in their usual places instead of being piled up out in the garage. Then out of the blue, in September, my oldest daughter (just newly turned 17) was in a serious car accident. She survived, but was pretty banged up. When she came home from the hospital, I set her up in the living room so I could better take care of her -- she could barely walk for about a week. The entire time she stayed in the living room (about 10 days) things were rockin and rollin in her room. Her stereo would go on and off almost constantly, even when it was unplugged. Some days it sounded like someone was moving furniture in there. When you would open the door, though, everything would look normal and in its place.
One afternoon in particular, she and I were in the kitchen eating lunch. The stereo had come on a couple of times already and we had each taken turns at going in and shutting if off. Auuugh! Here we go again! It was my turn, so I ventured in and turned it off. I also pulled the plug from the wall and draped it across the front of the unit (not the first time I had done that today). By now, I had taken to confronting the spirits when they would play their pranks, so I hollered, Enough with the stereos. Knock it off!. I then closed the door and went back to the kitchen. Like I said before, most times this works. A loud pounding started in my daughters room. It traveled down the hall, down the wall through the den and ended just outside the kitchen door. It was really loud, I mean, it rattled the walls. We both decided it was time to go catch a matinee.
Now, heres where the Quiga Board comes back into play. Wait a minute! Dont panic! I didnt do something as stupid as try to use it to contact the spirits that haunt my home or anything. I simply found it. It was underneath my daughters bed. I found it when we were moving her back into her room from the living room. I asked about it. This is when I discovered that the girls had been playing with the Quiga Board at their sleepover some months earlier. This would explain why, as of late, things were becoming more and more frequent. Especially the poltergeist activity. I vehemently explained to my daughter the inherent dangers of playing with a Quiga Board in a house where spirits already exist. Not only did they succeed in making the existing ones stronger, they likely invited others to join in the fray, so to speak (this may explain the over insistent, black, bible thumper that rang my bell). Oh, no. The Quiga Board had to go.
Simpleton that I was, I put it out with the trash. Ha! Ha! Ha! My daughter brought it to me 3 days later. She found it under her bed. This was not a good sign. This time we destroyed it, the both of us. I mean, we literally mutilated it. We took out all of the fear and frustration we had been subjected to thus far on this poor little cardboard and plastic game from Milton Bradley. I put it in a dumpster behind a Winn Dixie nearly 20 miles away from where we lived. I havent seen it since.
Getting rid of the Quiga Board didnt calm things down at the house much. The kids and I took off and spent 3 weeks up in Georgia with my mom and dad over the holidays. The hubby was spending less and less time at home, anyway. It was getting to be too much. When we returned home after the holidays, things were actually very quiet. A welcome change.
Then one afternoon, my daughter showed me something very strange. In the ceiling, over her bed, holes were appearing. They were very small and were appearing in a random pattern -- first there were 5 or 6, then there were 15-17, then there were 25-30 and so on. They looked almost as if someone had taken a knitting needle and poked a series of holes in the ceiling. After about 2 weeks or so they began to show the shape of a face. This creeped my daughter out to no end. I got a can of spackling compound and filled the holes in. We moved her bed to the other side of the room. A week later, I found her pet Love Bird (one she had gotten for her birthday the summer before) lying behind the bedroom door in the corner with its neck broken. The holes then began re-appearing in the ceiling over her bed (even though it had been moved). We repeated (several times) the same routine with filling in the holes and moving the bed. The holes eventually stopped appearing in late January/early February of 98.
Shortly after this occurred, I had my own encounter. Before I begin, I need to give you a little layout information first. The house was L shaped, single story, split-plan. The master bed was on the east end of the house. The kitchen, dining room, living room and foyer mainly covered the center portion of the house. Coming out of the kitchen, on the west end (in the crook of the L), was a den that connected on the other end to a short hall that led to the remaining bedrooms and bath. The east wall of the den had an impressive 10 ft wide glass door that overlooked an enclosed Florida Room running the entire length of the back of the house. Off the back of the Florida Room is where the pool was situated. I hope Im not confusing anyone. It was actually a pretty cool setup. From either the kitchen (big window in the kitchen) or the den you could see the entire backyard pool area. I had the den set up as an office so I could work and still keep an eye on the kids in the backyard.
Now back to the story. I was working late at the computer one night (about 12:30 am) when something hit the glass doors hard enough to rattle them in the frame. I swung around in my chair. There was nothing. Now, remember, I can see the entire back porch, the pool and a major portion of the backyard from where Im sitting. The glass doors had no curtains, no blinds, anything of that nature, and I was sitting a mere 6-7 feet from it. Believe me, there was nothing. I dismissed it (as I so often do) and turned back to the computer. About 15 minutes later, something hit the door again -- hard. This time, when I swung around, the door began violently shaking. It was about to rattle itself out of the frame. I was truly afraid that it was going to fall in. Now, ironically enough, my only thought at this point was how expensive it was going to be to replace this door. So I got up, crossed over to the door and tried to hold it up, hoping I could prevent it from falling in. Do we see a mental degradation pattern going on here? The moment I put my hands on the glass, the shaking stopped. Then I heard -- and I will never forget this -- laughter. I let go of the door as though it were hot and backed away. I promptly turned off the computer and went to bed. I said I went to bed, I never said I got any sleep.
Things were really starting to get weird, now. We were all starting to be plagued by nightmares. The poltergeist activity, which usually ended after the holidays, didnt. The sleeping 5 to a bed stuff was becoming more and more frequent.
Then, in the spring, I began to notice bruises on my oldest daughter. She would often have bruises in the shape of fingers on her upper arms, wrists and on her ankles. Once she had a horrific looking bruise about 8 inches long across her buttock and upper thigh. It looked like someone had hit her with a stick or a belt -- something long and thin. I questioned her. Her response was that she didnt know how she got them, she just woke up with them. These were some nasty bruises. Im sorry, but you dont get bruises like that and not remember where they came from. I figured she was covering for someone, most likely her then boyfriend. Needless to say, I had a little chat with the then boyfriend. I embarrassed myself. It turned out not to be him. Guess who it was? My daughter soon stopped sleeping in her room. When she did, the bruises quit appearing. She didnt sleep in her room for our last 6 months in the house. Cant say I blame her.
Youll remember that I said before something to the effect of the spirits being harmless for the most part, and not trying to do harm? Heres where my thinking begins to change on that subject. There was one final incident that helped make up my mind for me.
I forgot to fill you in on the pool, other than the pool equipment disaster, that is. Every so often, while swimming, you would hear a splash at the other end of the pool (it was always behind you). As you turn around, you see no one. You do, however, see ripples on the surface, as if someone had just jumped in. It was just enough to scare you out of the pool and it would only happen when you were alone. At least, you only noticed it when you were alone.
One evening around dusk, I was in the pool with 2 of the kids. The kids had gotten out and gone to hit the showers. I straggled behind, floating on my back in the deep end. There was no warning. I hadnt heard any noises nor mystery splashes whatsoever. Suddenly, something grabbed my left ankle and pulled me underwater, straight to the bottom (were talking 13 feet of water, here). I struggled, but I couldnt get free. I was running out of air. I started to panic. Then, just as suddenly as it had grabbed me, it let me go. I immediately went for the side and climbed out. I lay there on the pool deck, gasping, for I dont know how long. I was literally scared shitless! It, whatever it was, had just tried to drown me! This happened in early May. We moved in June, one week after my daughters high school graduation. I later learned that both my son and one of my daughters had also had near-drowning experiences. Thats it. Were out of here.
We initially put the house up for sale. I was a little conscious ridden about the disclosure thing, but then, nobody told us about it, right? It turned out not to be a problem. We moved all the furniture to our new house, a rental 50 miles away. We returned 2 days later to clean and gather up the remaining junk we had in the garage. I couldnt believe what I saw when we returned. Water was cascading down the driveway, a literal river. Someone had turned on every faucet in the house and plugged the drains with rags. We assume the water had been running for 2 days. The entire house was flooded.
In addition, every window in the house had been smashed. There were huge holes knocked into the walls and ceilings. The new toilets we had put in were shattered. The mirrors were smashed, the light fixtures and fans ripped down from the ceilings, etc. It was catastrophic. There was no way in hell we could afford to pay to fix all of this. Forget selling it. We did the only thing we could, under the circumstances. We filed a police report for the vandalism. We then did a deed in lieu of foreclosure and gave the house back to the bank. It was sold at auction. And here, our nightmare ends.
An interesting footnote to this story comes from my oldest daughter. About a year after we had moved away, my daughter returned to visit some friends. While she was in town, she decided to take a run by the old house and see what had become of it. As she pulled up and stopped in front of the house, a young girl (about 7 or
walked up to the car and asked my daughter if she used to live there. They had never laid eyes on each other before, but somehow this girl knew. The girl invited my daughter to come inside the house. At first, she was reluctant, but her curiosity got the better of her.
She ended up staying for about an hour, chatting with the new owners. They had a lot of questions. She discovered, from their chat, that the new owners were still having problems with the phone, the wiring and the plumbing. They also replaced the garage door, again. In addition, they had found both of their pet birds (a macaw and a cockatiel) dead. Ones neck had been broken. The other had been decapitated. The girl my daughter had met in the driveway had just recently been taken for psychiatric evaluation by her parents because she was plagued with nightmares and claimed to be seeing things in her room (she occupied the Peeping Tom room). She also didnt like to go swimming...
*seksie gaming chixor* w00t!
I asked God for all things so that I may enjoy life, God said, "No, I will give you life so that you may enjoy all things."
All things are better in the end...if things aren't better, then it's not the end.
*Contributing to the Creation of an Enlightened Planetary Civilization*
Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup!
"Qui tacet consentit" (silence implies consent)
Well I'm reposting it as I saw it on their website - it's a fantastic read and I couldn't fathom living through what their family did - how scary!
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#222
By: sandymay62@hotmail.com
The following is a true depiction of our adventures living in a haunted house. Although I have been called crazy by more than a few people with regards to this story, I assure you the events described herein are true and actually did happen. I share them now with you, as best I can recollect.
#222
In 1994, my husband and I moved our family (4 kids - aged 3, 6, 10 and 14) to a small seaside town on the east central coast of Florida. Wed found our dream home -- 4/2, in-ground pool, 2600sf, priced 20,000 under market value, less than 3 miles from the beach -- Perfect! It was a little run down, but we figured what we saved on the purchase price we could put into fixing it up. I was a good thing we were in that mindset. Almost immediately, our nightmare began.
On our 3rd night in the house, there was a horrendous thunderstorm, one of those tropical blasters we often get down here in FL. The next morning I awoke to discover that we had lost a couple of trees to the storm. The first was a 40 foot cottonwood tree that stood off the side of the front porch. It was close to the house and had branches that hung well over the roof. It fell in an eastward direction across the front yard (the house faces due south) leaving a 5 foot crater in the yard. There was only one place this tree could have fallen and not hit anything and that is where it fell. The branches did not even scrape the roof or gutters going down. It was weird. It gets weirder.
The other was a lemon tree growing in the backyard. It was a much smaller tree, about 8 feet tall with a 5 inch trunk base. It had fallen in a westward direction, exactly opposite the tree in the front yard. It had also been uprooted. Since it was a mature tree and bore fruit, I decided to try and save it. I dug out the hole and re-planted it. Three days later, I found the tree uprooted, lying on the ground in the same westward direction. I chalked it up to the kids, and re-planted it, again. This time I tied it to stakes to help hold it up and let it take root. Six days later, I found it again, uprooted, lying westward. The stakes and wire I had tied it up with were gone -- not lying on the ground with or near the tree -- just gone. I questioned the kids. They claimed to know nothing. I tried a couple more times to save this tree only to find it again and again uprooted and lying westward. I finally gave up on it.
Another interesting tidbit about the trees: there were 3 citrus trees in the backyard, an orange, a tangerine and a lemon. We lost the lemon tree to the storm, but -- heres the strange part -- the orange and tangerine trees never bore one piece of edible fruit the entire time we lived there. The trees were full of fruit that looked good on the outside, but every piece was rotten and foul-smelling on the inside. Yuck!
In the meantime, things were going weird inside the house as well. We immediately started having trouble with all things electrical. It was really strange. We would get what I call dead zones throughout the house. Nothing electrical would work within that zone -- all the light switches and electrical outlets would be dead. It was completely random and would last for several days or even weeks. First it would be the foyer and living room, then it would move to the hall or the back porch or to one of the bedrooms. There were times when weve had to use extension cords to keep the refrigerator plugged in! We replaced fuses. We replaced breakers. We replaced wiring. Hell, we replaced the entire fuse box! Nothing worked. It continued, off and on, until the day we moved out.
Next came the appliances. Every appliance in the house died a sudden and systematic death. It started with the garbage disposal. I was cleaning up after dinner and was about to turn on the disposer. As I leaned over to turn the faucet on, I caught this rancid smell coming up from the drain. I have never smelled anything like it before or since. I flipped the switch for the disposer. It immediately started making God-awful noises. I backed up. Good thing, too. A large metal thing came whizzing past my head (I actually felt the breeze) and knocked a chunk out of the cabinet on the opposite wall behind me. It turned out to be one of the blades. From there it went downhill. Next came the dishwasher, then the stove, the refrigerator, the washing machine....you get the picture. I lived in this house for 5 years and went through 2 garbage disposals, 2 dishwashers, 1 stove, 2 refrigerators, 3 washing machines and 1 dryer. Did I forget to mention and endless tirade of alarm clocks, toasters, telephones, and every other small appliance you can think of?
But wait! It gets even better! One afternoon, I was coming back from picking the kids up from school. I hit the garage door opener and the door went up. No problem. As I started to pull in, the entire door suddenly came crashing down from the ceiling. It missed the car by mere inches. I called the garage door company. They put up a brand new door. New hardware and rails, too. Three weeks later, it came crashing down again. They put it up again. It came down again and so on. No one could explain why it kept falling. We ended up in a lawsuit with the garage door company because they refused, after a while, to come back and work on it anymore. We eventually stopped using the garage for anything other than storage.
As if all this werent enough, we started getting a lot of interference on the phones, the televisions and on the computer. In addition to turning on and off by itself, the TV would cut in and out -- usually just static or else the screen would blank. Same thing on the computer. Files would also go missing on the computer and, every now and then, it would just freak out completely. Restarting it did no good. I went through 3 hard drives, 2 modems and 2 motherboards in 5 years. Add to that 2 printers. Starting to see a pattern here?
The phones were what was really creepy. Nearly every time you used the phone, at least once (sometimes more), a loud burst of static would cut in. Sometimes all you heard was the static. Other times you could hear voices through the static. They were always garbled and you could never quite make out what they were saying. Sometimes. Once -- and this one still sends chills down my spine -- I heard a male voice say hello to me and call me by name. Then, laughter. I hung up on who I was talking to. The static and the voices could be heard on both ends of the line. People would often ask me what the hell was that? or did you hear that? while on the phone with me. Creeeepy!!!!!!!!!!
The phones were also often victims of the dead zones. The phone company replaced -- not repaired -- replaced the phone jacks and wiring in this house 8 times over a 5 year period. Thank God for that inside wire maintenance plan! It got so I knew most of the BellSouth repairmen by name. They could never fix it, though. The phone problem also continued, unabated, until the day we moved out.
Now, keep in mind that all of these things happened within the first year or so of our living here. We were convinced that we had bought the house from hell! Well, it was around this time that I began to take notice of what (or should I say whom) was causing all the trouble. My children noticed much sooner than I did, but were afraid to tell me about it. They have since shared many of their experiences with me. I wont get into their tales, right now. Ill just concentrate on my own experiences.
It all started (for me) with a shower. What is it about bathrooms, anyway? I was in the master bath and just rinsing the soap out of my hair when I heard a loud knock on the shower door. It spooked me. I turned to look. Nothing there. I opened the shower door. Again, nothing there. Now, being a mom with 4 kids, I have learned never to take a shower without locking the bathroom door. I assure you, I was alone. I just didnt feel alone. I dismissed it, however, and continued with my shower at a somewhat quicker pace. Sure enough, another knock came, same as before. Since I have had experiences similar to this in the past, I figured the best thing to do was to confront the spirit and tell it to leave me alone. Most of the time this works. I defiantly faced the shower door and said, Okay, knock it off! No sooner had the words left my lips than the lights went out. BAM!
So here I am, naked, wet, water running, standing in the dark ready to jump out of my skin! If anything had actually touched me at that moment, someone would have had to summon the little men in the white coats! I eventually gathered enough courage to turn off the water and slowly feel my way down the wall to the door. When I got to the door and opened it, I discovered that the lights were off in the master bedroom as well. It stayed that way for 2 days. Dead zone in the master bed and bath!
It was like we were living in the middle of a virtual cornucopia of paranormal activity here. We had apparitions. We had poltergeist activity. We heard voices both inside and outside the house, not to mention through the phones and radios. Lights and TVs and stereos would turn off and on by themselves -- you know the drill. But, lets slow down a minute. I dont want to give the impression that this was going on 24-7-365. It sort of came in waves. A kind of ebb and flow, if you will. I also believe that there was more than one spirit residing in this house. In fact, I believe there to be several. This is where the story gets a little complicated, so Ill try and explain as best I can. Stay with me!
The majority of poltergeist activity (things moving around, pounding, knocking on shower doors - you know, the scary stuff) were more prominent during the holiday months, from about October until January. Even then, they werent occurring every day, just every now and then. This spirit liked to scare you. It also liked the element of surprise. Things would be quiet for awhile and then -- BOO! Usually when you were alone (naturally). This one liked to keep you on your toes! Every once in a while, though, it would cause you to pack up and go spend the afternoon at the mall or the movies.
The telephone and electrical problems not withstanding, the mainstays were a large shadowy figure that would pass in front of the picture window in the front of the house. It would always pass from left to right, and then a few minutes later, would pass back from right to left. I saw it everyday, sometimes as many as 5 or 6 times. At least it was outside.
From about late spring through the end of summer, you would often hear the voices of two men arguing in the backyard on the far side of the pool (under the citrus trees), usually around dusk. They would really go at it -- screaming, cursing, scuffling. As soon as you looked out a window or stepped onto the back porch it would stop and there would, of course, be nothing. The first time we heard it, my daughter and I thought that the neighbors were fighting. We were literally out in the backyard peering over fences! Again, at least they were outside.
We also had a Peeping Tom that would stand outside my oldest daughters bedroom window. Just stand there and smile. He was a solid apparition, none of this mist or transparency nonsense. This guy looked real. He was a thirtyish man dressed in dark slacks, a white button-down shirt and tie (office attire), and had dark hair, bushy eyebrows and a moustache. The first time I saw him I actually started to walk up to him and ask him what the hell he thought he was doing peeping in windows. He looked right at me and smiled, then promptly disappeared. Ive seen him exactly twice. My daughter says she would see him a couple of times a week or more beginning from the first night we slept in the house.
There were also spirits residing inside the house with us. The most prominent was male, I dont know his age or even how I know he was male -- I just got the distinct feeling this spirit was male. Hes the door knocking, light switching guy I met in the shower. This one seemed to have an affinity for me, much like the Peeping Tom had an affinity for my daughter. Go figure.
In addition to flipping light switches and knocking on doors, one of this spirits favorite tricks was to sit down next to you on the sofa while you were watching TV. I had a leather sofa and loveseat, so it was obvious whenever he would sit down. You could hear the leather creak and could see the depression in the sofa cushions. If you would move to another seat, he would follow and sit next to you again. Every once in a while he would actually reach out and touch you. I have felt him, at different times, rub the back of my neck, squeeze my knee and put his hand over mine -- all while he was sitting next to me. I had a problem with this. Each time I would jump up screaming Dont touch me! -- Im sorry, this really freaked me out. I cannot abide the touching. Eventually, it stopped (the touching part, anyway). He did have a dislike for my husband, however. He used to lock him out of the bedroom quite often, even locked him out of the house on several occasions.
The guy who showed up around the holidays was a pretty malevolent spirit. Like I said, this guy liked to scare you. His spirit was strong but of relatively short duration. Thank God! I also think that this was the voice we all heard on the phone, but I cant be sure (maybe it was the one who liked to squeeze my knee). Who can tell?
Now, at this point Im sure that most of you are dying to ask why we stayed in this house, with all this interesting stuff going on, for 3 years. Actually, it was 5 (more like 4 and a half). Next question: Why didnt we pack up our belongings and get the hell out of dodge? Good question.
It was more a matter of having to stay rather than wanting to stay. At this point we were up to our eyeballs in the house. We had to take out a second, and then a third mortgage to pay for the electrical repairs along with some plumbing and pool repairs (which I will get to in a minute). This, after having only lived in the house for about 3 years. Add to that the everyday expense of feeding, clothing, educating and sheltering a family of 6. Enough said. Sometimes that prize behind door number 3 is just a turd in a box.
We were learning to live with it as a family. What other choice did we have? After a while, it became sort of routine. Its hard to explain. After a while, you come to know that someones going to knock on the door when you get a shower, you expect it. When you hear fighting in the backyard, you dont even go to the window anymore. All the electrical and telephone nuisances became a standing joke after a while. Most of the spirits seemed harmless enough -- I mean, they never tried to do anything other than annoy or scare us. They never tried to do us any real harm. The spirits usually only messed with you when you were alone. One advantage (at least in this instance) of living amongst a large family is that there is no such thing as privacy. Alone time is often scarce. Of course, every once in a while, I would step on one of my kids getting out of bed because theyre lying on the floor beside me or because weve spent the night 5 in a bed. We do what we gotta do.
So now were up to summer 1997. This is when things really started to pick up. My oldest daughter (then 16) was having a sleepover with some friends -- 3 to be exact. I had to drive one of the girls home at 2:30 in the morning because she was hysterical and refused to stay the rest of the night at our house. She saw the Peeping Tom in the window. What I didnt know then, but later discovered, is that the girls had been playing with a Quiga Board. Not a good idea. Especially in this house. More especially if you are a group of kids and have no idea what you are doing.
Things got gradually worse over the next 18 months or so. Two more tragic financial events occurred back to back near the end of that summer. Suddenly, one afternoon, for no apparent reason, the pool filter exploded. It was something to see. It blew the top of the filter housing about 50-60 ft straight up in the air! It landed on the roof. So, okay -- $560 for a new pool filter. The following week the pump motor froze up. Okay -- another $380 for a new pool pump. Lets not forget to tack on installation. I certainly dont know how to install a pool filter, do you? Dont forget, we also have to fix the roof. O joy!
Now, for benefit of those of you who dont own a pool, let me fill you in on what a pain in the @#%$ it is to have your pool equipment down and not working. It doesnt take long for the water to go funky. It starts to grow algae. In the heat of summer in Florida it can start to look like a catfish pond in about a week. So in addition to repairing the equipment, you now get to spend the next week or so riding a brush attached to a long pole and pouring about $80-$100 worth of chemicals in twice a day on a daily basis until you can begin to see the bottom of the pool again! Oh, sorry. Im digressing.
Within 2 months of the pool equipment disaster, the plumbing started acting up. First, the toilets. When you flushed, raw sewage would back up into the toilets, sinks, tubs and showers. Time to call Roto-Rooter! That worked for awhile. A couple months later, same thing. Time to call Roto-Rooter again!
Three days after the Roto-Rooter man left, the plumbing exploded in the master bathroom. Three weeks after that, and while the master bath was still under repair, the plumbing exploded in the other bathroom. It was awful. It happened in the middle of the night. We woke up to find 3 inches of water covering about 2/3 of the house. There was a river of water running out the back door onto the covered porch. It got everything -- carpets, walls, furniture, clothes, 2 TVs, 3 stereos and the computer.
This was also a financial disaster. The insurance paid us roughly $12,000 for about $35,000 worth of repairs. Ever since Hurricane Andrew hit south Florida, insurance coverage in this state is a nightmare. It is horrendously expensive and the coverage is squat. The insurance company said something about pipes not being covered because they were considered a maintenance item. A maintenance item? Please. I ask you, when was the last time you opened up your walls and checked your pipes? Sorry, digressing again.
The bad news about the plumbing was that the house sat on a concrete slab. All of the pipes and plumbing were poured into the slab, naturally. So now we have 2 choices: dig up the floors and the underlying concrete slab to find the breaks and repair the pipes, or cut off the old plumbing system and re-route all new pipes through the attic. Option number 2 was cheaper. Now we embark on a six month long construction project. Water on, water off. Electricity on, electricity off. Old carpet out. New carpet in. You get the picture.
The spirits, naturally, couldn't resist messing with the hired help. Over the next 6 months, we had 3 different plumbing contractors. The first guy left for lunch and didnt come back. He called me 4 days later (after I had left about a half dozen messages on his voice mail) and told me I needed to look for a new contractor. He would never say why. He gave me back my deposit, too. We also had 3 different drywall crews and 2 different flooring crews. These guys just didnt like working in my house for some reason!
Once the plumbing was in and the drywall put up, I started on the painting/papering stage of our little renovation project. One morning, as I was hanging paper in the dining room, the doorbell rang. I opened the door to see a tall, gaunt, black man standing outside the security gate. [The front porch was entirely enclosed by wrought iron security bars and a gate. The kids referred to it as the cage. On this particular day I was glad that it was a locking gate.]
This man proceeded to tell me that he was a Jehovahs Witness and would like to come inside and talk to me about his faith. Hallelujah! Naturally, I began making polite excuses. This guy wouldnt take no for an answer. He kept insisting that I let him inside. The more I would decline, the more insistent he would become. This began to annoy me. I rather gruffly told the man that I was not interested and would not let him come inside my house. I turned to go back inside. As I reached the front door (about 6 ft from the gate), the man suddenly said, Open the gate. It did not sound like a request. I turned to confront him and there was no one there. I walked to the gate. He was gone -- not on the sidewalk, not in the driveway, not on the street -- gone. All I can say is if this guy wanted in, he wasnt getting an invitation from me.
By fall, we were back to some semblance of order. The construction phase had come and gone and things were being put back in their usual places instead of being piled up out in the garage. Then out of the blue, in September, my oldest daughter (just newly turned 17) was in a serious car accident. She survived, but was pretty banged up. When she came home from the hospital, I set her up in the living room so I could better take care of her -- she could barely walk for about a week. The entire time she stayed in the living room (about 10 days) things were rockin and rollin in her room. Her stereo would go on and off almost constantly, even when it was unplugged. Some days it sounded like someone was moving furniture in there. When you would open the door, though, everything would look normal and in its place.
One afternoon in particular, she and I were in the kitchen eating lunch. The stereo had come on a couple of times already and we had each taken turns at going in and shutting if off. Auuugh! Here we go again! It was my turn, so I ventured in and turned it off. I also pulled the plug from the wall and draped it across the front of the unit (not the first time I had done that today). By now, I had taken to confronting the spirits when they would play their pranks, so I hollered, Enough with the stereos. Knock it off!. I then closed the door and went back to the kitchen. Like I said before, most times this works. A loud pounding started in my daughters room. It traveled down the hall, down the wall through the den and ended just outside the kitchen door. It was really loud, I mean, it rattled the walls. We both decided it was time to go catch a matinee.
Now, heres where the Quiga Board comes back into play. Wait a minute! Dont panic! I didnt do something as stupid as try to use it to contact the spirits that haunt my home or anything. I simply found it. It was underneath my daughters bed. I found it when we were moving her back into her room from the living room. I asked about it. This is when I discovered that the girls had been playing with the Quiga Board at their sleepover some months earlier. This would explain why, as of late, things were becoming more and more frequent. Especially the poltergeist activity. I vehemently explained to my daughter the inherent dangers of playing with a Quiga Board in a house where spirits already exist. Not only did they succeed in making the existing ones stronger, they likely invited others to join in the fray, so to speak (this may explain the over insistent, black, bible thumper that rang my bell). Oh, no. The Quiga Board had to go.
Simpleton that I was, I put it out with the trash. Ha! Ha! Ha! My daughter brought it to me 3 days later. She found it under her bed. This was not a good sign. This time we destroyed it, the both of us. I mean, we literally mutilated it. We took out all of the fear and frustration we had been subjected to thus far on this poor little cardboard and plastic game from Milton Bradley. I put it in a dumpster behind a Winn Dixie nearly 20 miles away from where we lived. I havent seen it since.
Getting rid of the Quiga Board didnt calm things down at the house much. The kids and I took off and spent 3 weeks up in Georgia with my mom and dad over the holidays. The hubby was spending less and less time at home, anyway. It was getting to be too much. When we returned home after the holidays, things were actually very quiet. A welcome change.
Then one afternoon, my daughter showed me something very strange. In the ceiling, over her bed, holes were appearing. They were very small and were appearing in a random pattern -- first there were 5 or 6, then there were 15-17, then there were 25-30 and so on. They looked almost as if someone had taken a knitting needle and poked a series of holes in the ceiling. After about 2 weeks or so they began to show the shape of a face. This creeped my daughter out to no end. I got a can of spackling compound and filled the holes in. We moved her bed to the other side of the room. A week later, I found her pet Love Bird (one she had gotten for her birthday the summer before) lying behind the bedroom door in the corner with its neck broken. The holes then began re-appearing in the ceiling over her bed (even though it had been moved). We repeated (several times) the same routine with filling in the holes and moving the bed. The holes eventually stopped appearing in late January/early February of 98.
Shortly after this occurred, I had my own encounter. Before I begin, I need to give you a little layout information first. The house was L shaped, single story, split-plan. The master bed was on the east end of the house. The kitchen, dining room, living room and foyer mainly covered the center portion of the house. Coming out of the kitchen, on the west end (in the crook of the L), was a den that connected on the other end to a short hall that led to the remaining bedrooms and bath. The east wall of the den had an impressive 10 ft wide glass door that overlooked an enclosed Florida Room running the entire length of the back of the house. Off the back of the Florida Room is where the pool was situated. I hope Im not confusing anyone. It was actually a pretty cool setup. From either the kitchen (big window in the kitchen) or the den you could see the entire backyard pool area. I had the den set up as an office so I could work and still keep an eye on the kids in the backyard.
Now back to the story. I was working late at the computer one night (about 12:30 am) when something hit the glass doors hard enough to rattle them in the frame. I swung around in my chair. There was nothing. Now, remember, I can see the entire back porch, the pool and a major portion of the backyard from where Im sitting. The glass doors had no curtains, no blinds, anything of that nature, and I was sitting a mere 6-7 feet from it. Believe me, there was nothing. I dismissed it (as I so often do) and turned back to the computer. About 15 minutes later, something hit the door again -- hard. This time, when I swung around, the door began violently shaking. It was about to rattle itself out of the frame. I was truly afraid that it was going to fall in. Now, ironically enough, my only thought at this point was how expensive it was going to be to replace this door. So I got up, crossed over to the door and tried to hold it up, hoping I could prevent it from falling in. Do we see a mental degradation pattern going on here? The moment I put my hands on the glass, the shaking stopped. Then I heard -- and I will never forget this -- laughter. I let go of the door as though it were hot and backed away. I promptly turned off the computer and went to bed. I said I went to bed, I never said I got any sleep.
Things were really starting to get weird, now. We were all starting to be plagued by nightmares. The poltergeist activity, which usually ended after the holidays, didnt. The sleeping 5 to a bed stuff was becoming more and more frequent.
Then, in the spring, I began to notice bruises on my oldest daughter. She would often have bruises in the shape of fingers on her upper arms, wrists and on her ankles. Once she had a horrific looking bruise about 8 inches long across her buttock and upper thigh. It looked like someone had hit her with a stick or a belt -- something long and thin. I questioned her. Her response was that she didnt know how she got them, she just woke up with them. These were some nasty bruises. Im sorry, but you dont get bruises like that and not remember where they came from. I figured she was covering for someone, most likely her then boyfriend. Needless to say, I had a little chat with the then boyfriend. I embarrassed myself. It turned out not to be him. Guess who it was? My daughter soon stopped sleeping in her room. When she did, the bruises quit appearing. She didnt sleep in her room for our last 6 months in the house. Cant say I blame her.
Youll remember that I said before something to the effect of the spirits being harmless for the most part, and not trying to do harm? Heres where my thinking begins to change on that subject. There was one final incident that helped make up my mind for me.
I forgot to fill you in on the pool, other than the pool equipment disaster, that is. Every so often, while swimming, you would hear a splash at the other end of the pool (it was always behind you). As you turn around, you see no one. You do, however, see ripples on the surface, as if someone had just jumped in. It was just enough to scare you out of the pool and it would only happen when you were alone. At least, you only noticed it when you were alone.
One evening around dusk, I was in the pool with 2 of the kids. The kids had gotten out and gone to hit the showers. I straggled behind, floating on my back in the deep end. There was no warning. I hadnt heard any noises nor mystery splashes whatsoever. Suddenly, something grabbed my left ankle and pulled me underwater, straight to the bottom (were talking 13 feet of water, here). I struggled, but I couldnt get free. I was running out of air. I started to panic. Then, just as suddenly as it had grabbed me, it let me go. I immediately went for the side and climbed out. I lay there on the pool deck, gasping, for I dont know how long. I was literally scared shitless! It, whatever it was, had just tried to drown me! This happened in early May. We moved in June, one week after my daughters high school graduation. I later learned that both my son and one of my daughters had also had near-drowning experiences. Thats it. Were out of here.
We initially put the house up for sale. I was a little conscious ridden about the disclosure thing, but then, nobody told us about it, right? It turned out not to be a problem. We moved all the furniture to our new house, a rental 50 miles away. We returned 2 days later to clean and gather up the remaining junk we had in the garage. I couldnt believe what I saw when we returned. Water was cascading down the driveway, a literal river. Someone had turned on every faucet in the house and plugged the drains with rags. We assume the water had been running for 2 days. The entire house was flooded.
In addition, every window in the house had been smashed. There were huge holes knocked into the walls and ceilings. The new toilets we had put in were shattered. The mirrors were smashed, the light fixtures and fans ripped down from the ceilings, etc. It was catastrophic. There was no way in hell we could afford to pay to fix all of this. Forget selling it. We did the only thing we could, under the circumstances. We filed a police report for the vandalism. We then did a deed in lieu of foreclosure and gave the house back to the bank. It was sold at auction. And here, our nightmare ends.
An interesting footnote to this story comes from my oldest daughter. About a year after we had moved away, my daughter returned to visit some friends. While she was in town, she decided to take a run by the old house and see what had become of it. As she pulled up and stopped in front of the house, a young girl (about 7 or
walked up to the car and asked my daughter if she used to live there. They had never laid eyes on each other before, but somehow this girl knew. The girl invited my daughter to come inside the house. At first, she was reluctant, but her curiosity got the better of her. She ended up staying for about an hour, chatting with the new owners. They had a lot of questions. She discovered, from their chat, that the new owners were still having problems with the phone, the wiring and the plumbing. They also replaced the garage door, again. In addition, they had found both of their pet birds (a macaw and a cockatiel) dead. Ones neck had been broken. The other had been decapitated. The girl my daughter had met in the driveway had just recently been taken for psychiatric evaluation by her parents because she was plagued with nightmares and claimed to be seeing things in her room (she occupied the Peeping Tom room). She also didnt like to go swimming...
*seksie gaming chixor* w00t!
I asked God for all things so that I may enjoy life, God said, "No, I will give you life so that you may enjoy all things."
All things are better in the end...if things aren't better, then it's not the end.
*Contributing to the Creation of an Enlightened Planetary Civilization*
Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup!
"Qui tacet consentit" (silence implies consent)
Steak - it's why aliens steal our cows.
or I would have peed my pants! 