Bridgeland
Thursday August 25, 2005
Investigators present: Chris, Matt, Tom
Length of visit: 2hours 10minutes
We were contacted by the tenant of this older, much renovated/added onto Bridgeland home several months prior to our investigation. It was one of those "I have some stuff going on, contact me when you can" things that, for some reason, took time to coordinate. We did manage, however, to finally set up the investigation and arrived just before 18:30. The tenant was very glad to see us and invited us in.
We began with our usual questionnaire while sitting around the kitchen table. Chris and Matt wandered through the house as Tom finished off the initial documentation. When they got back, and before joining the others, Tom loaded his 35mm camera and asked Chris to take a picture of him. This is the only photograph that has any anomaly.
These very nice people have lived in their home for over 10 years. During that time, many young (teenaged) people have stayed with the family, some who were troubled. While one would expect an increase in any paranormal activity during these periods of transition, there were very few that anyone could recall. Also, his ex-wife had some personal problems that seemed to translate into activity while she lived in the home. There was reduced activity after she left (several months prior to our investigation). However, there had been some recent activity that prompted the tenant to contact us.
The story, from the tenant and his daughters, is one of unusual events happening over a long period of time, most of which no explanation could be found. These events happen for one to two weeks at a time with many, often lengthy and uneventful gaps. During times of activity, one of the events included hearing what sounded like someone walking on the roof. The tenant would go outside and look, but could never see anyone. He thought that perhaps the trees overhanging the house were banging in the wind and he cut them back. This did not solve the noise problem. He felt that some of the yard work he had done (removing dead plants and clearing the hedge from the west side of the yard) may have had something to do with the occurrences.
Other reported events include:
- hearing the dog or cat walking through the hallway when both are in another room (either laying down or playing, but always in plain view)
- misplaced items found in unusual places (reading glasses placed on table while answering phone then found in drawer in bedroom 20 minutes later)
- elements on stove 'burning-out' on regular basis
- trouble sleeping with occasional nightmares (vision of dark man in raincoat standing in doorway)
- unexplained scratches on chest (may be a form of ecchymosis where you scratch yourself, forget about it and sometime later raised lines appear)
The tenant told us that no one likes going to the bathroom because they have to go through the hallway. He believed that it had to do with negative energy in the hallway. We toured the house and found that indeed the hallway felt unsettled. Upon further examination, we found that the hallway narrows as you go toward the bedrooms and bathroom. This narrowing effect and people's perception related to it, makes traversing the hallway rather unnerving. We were also told of unusual and disgusting smells coming from the sink drain in the bathroom. The landlord had replaced some of the drainpipes in the system and this had cleared the smell for a short time. However, the drain in the bathroom and, specifically, the one directly under the sink were not changed and the smell came back. We feel that this set of pipes need to be replaced in order to permanently remove the odour.
The owner/landlord has many properties in the area and has performed many additions/renovations on these other properties. This particular house is over 70 years old, with the major additions and renovations beginning in 1963. It seems that this is the landlords' hobby. The home has two floors but appears to be divided into several 'levels' - no room has the same ceiling height, door size or window type. The hallway (as mentioned above) is uninviting. The basement is separated into two sections: a small part for the tenants and an old apartment used as a workshop/project area that is being "fixed up for future tenants" (we did not see any evidence of this).
The landlord visits the property on a regular basis, ostensibly to work on the separate apartment space. It is when he has been there that paranormal incidences increase.
We took pictures in every room but found nothing unusual at the time. One daughter's bedroom is painted black, which gives the sensation of foreboding. We believe that this is exactly what the daughter wants. The back room feels claustrophobic only because it is used for storage. The master bedroom, the living room and the kitchen were neutral. The tenants' basement area was cozy.
The "apartment" in the other side of the tenants' basement is a mess. As we walked through it, Chris made a joke about how funny it would be if something happened - it kind of did. A small portion of ceiling tile fell directly in front of Chris and Matt. This unexpected event startled them. Upon closer inspection, the event was not paranormal in origin but had to do with some water damage, possibly from a leaky pipe.
The rest of the visit was uneventful.
We believe that the landlord may be the source of many events. Whenever he has been to the house and done some work or noticed that some yard work has been done, there is a dramatic increase in unusual events. It is, perhaps, because he has had tragedy in his life and sees this home (and maybe the others he owns) as a safe place that should not be changed by anyone but himself. This could result in stress, creating excess energy that translates into paranormal occurrences at the home. This is a type of poltergeist activity. While the landlord may not be a pre-pubescent girl, the mechanics behind this unconscious shedding of stress energy and the resultant random paranormal events is the same.
