Weird Morning Inspection

[hausdok]

Hi All,

Well, I'd thought I'd seen it all until this morning. Now I'm not so sure.

A little back story. The lady called me the other day to schedule this mornings inspection and then called me in the morning yesterday to cancel, saying that after she and her husband had been in the house they had a bad vibe and had changed their mind. About two hours later she called me back and said she still wanted the slot. Since I'd been on a job all morning and hadn't been answering my phone, she was in luck and I hadn't given the slot away yet. We arranged, as we originally had, to meet this morning.

This morning, I arrived on time at the site and met the clients and their agent. We all went inside to complete the contract.

I was sitting in a dinette at a round little breakfast table with the two clients facing me. Out the window to my right I could see the other wing of the house and the windows of the family room.

While i was going over the contract with them, something caught the corner of my eye and I glanced out the window over the husband's shoulder to see the shadowy figure of a man inside the family room. He appeared to be talking on a cell phone or holding his head. He walked to the right in front of the exterior entrance at the north side of the family room and then he turned and disappeared out of the window frame to the west again. I thought to myself, "Huh, why is the owner still here?" then I thought, "Well, maybe it's the owner's teenage son."

The clients were Chinese and so was their realtor and there was a little bit of a language challenge. Her English was best, so I'd explain something to them and then pause while she'd translate what I'd said to the husband. I was pausing again when movement caught my eye again, I looked over at the other wing at the family room window where the movement was and there was that guy again. Briefly into view and then back out of sight. I thought to myself, "I'd better find out who that is and what room that is. If it's some kid's bedroom and he's still at home I should probably get in there and get it done first so I won't have to bother him."

So, on it went for a little while more and I saw the figure three more times. Finally, both his and her questions were answered and they seemed satisfied. I went outside to get my gear and left them to sign the contract. As I exited the house the sidewalk went right past the window where I'd seen the guy. I glanced in; it was a completely vacant and bare room and nobody was in there. What the f***!

I brought in my tool bag and grabbed my clipboard and began jotting down some notes and here came the wife, whereupon I asked her, "Did the owner say anything to you about being home today?" She answered that the owner was out of state, whereupon I said, "Huh, well I guess he left a teenage son behind, huh?" She looked puzzled and asked, "Why do you say that?" I answered, "Well, while I was talking to you two I noticed a guy in this room (pointing at the window) pacing back and forth but now he's somehow gotten out of that room."

What was really strange about that was that from where I was sitting I could clearly see the exterior entrance at the north side of that room and the only other entrance was a door to the interior which was closed and which I'd been able to clearly see from where I'd been sitting. They of course wouldn't have sen it because their backs were to it. The agent wouldn't have seen it because he was out in the living room talking endlessly on his cell phone and walking back and forth.

She stopped dead in her tracks and her eyes went wide and she said, "You mean there is someone else here? There isn't supposed to be anyone here. Now I'm frightened!" I tried to calm her down and said, "Maybe it was your realtor in there talking on his cell phone," whereupon she went into the living room to ask the realtor. They chattered back and forth in Chinese for about ten seconds and then she turned around and all the color had drained out of her face. She said, "He said he hasn't been in that room at all."

I was completely baffled. Then I thought about the landscaping guy who'd been there a little while before and I said, "Maybe it was the landscaping guy walking back and forth across the front yard and I'd caught his reflection in the glass." I decided to perform an experiment. "Go sit there where I was sitting and watch that family room window while I pace back and forth across the front yard," I told her. So, then I walked back and forth across the yard, following the pattern of the lawnmower in the grass. After about five or six passes I stopped and asked her through the window, "Did you see my reflection in that room?" She was even more pale and she just shook her head.

Now I was really flummoxed; I'd had both of them right in front of me so it couldn't have been either of them, it couldn't have been the landscaper and it couldn't have been the agent. The house sits up above the adjacent roadway on a steep slope so it couldn't have been the reflection of anyone else unless that person was literally floating just out of the frame of the window I was sitting next to at about 60 ft. elevation above the street. I went into that room. It had a door at either end and the exterior door at the North end was locked from the inside and I'd had the other door in my sight all the time I'd been going over the contract with them. I stomped my foot; slab floor. That's when I realized that I was in converted two car garage and now I understood the newer detached two-car garage. I examined the walls and ceiling; absolutely no way anyone had gone through some kind of passageway.

I came out of that room and I guess my face gave away my consternation because now the husband and wife were having a very excited conversation with the realtor and now the realtor looked like he was rattled. They turned to me and said, "Mike, we are very sorry to do this, but we no longer want this house. How much do we owe you for your time?"

I was kind of taken aback. I've had people stop inspections for rodents and mold and just plain funkiness but I've never had one stopped because I'd scared the crap out of the clients by seeing something I couldn't fully and logically explain. Since I live only a few miles from the house and I didn't have to fight my way through traffic to get home, and they promised to call me for the next house they find, I charged them $100 for my hour of time. As they were hurriedly grabbing their jackets and other belongings and getting out of the house the realtor explained to me that they'd gotten a bad feeling when they were in the house two days before and that's why they'd initially wanted to cancel. He said he'd talked them into coming back and now, he too, was a little freaked out about the place. I packed my gear and headed home.

I pondered that all the way home. There were about five different glimpses of that dude and there was no question that it wasn't a reflection because every time he'd crossed in front of that north entrance to that room the large brass locking bolt on that door had disappeared from my view. He/it definitely wasn't transparent, so exactly what the hell did I see?

Thinking about going to see the doc and demanding an MRI to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.

Ghostless in Seattle

Mike

[tim5055]

Mike,

Google the address and see if there are any news stories about the house......

[hausdok]

Mike,

Google the address and see if there are any news stories about the house......

Yeah, thought about that already. Nothing unusual in Google.

Thinking back on it now, the hair is going up on the back of my neck. Kind of glad I didn't go into the crawlspace under that thing; maybe I would have found the entrance to hell or something.

By the way, price asked for the home is $1,950,000. I'm betting that once word gets back to the seller and the listing agent all hell is gonna break loose.

Never a dull moment in this gig.

[mjr6550]

I believe the last house I lived in was haunted, even through I'm not a big believer of ghosts. I saw a woman walking down the hallway one night. She was not transparent. My daughter later told me a woman used to visit her at night.

[Jim Katen]

I've had spooky experiences, but they were in my head, not in the world.

There's a plain, everyday, real-world explanation for what you saw. Just because you can't figure it out doesn't mean that it's paranormal.

[David Meiland]

I've had a similar experience. After looking around more, I realized that one room had an entire wall of mirror, and that looking through the windows into that room was completely disorienting.

[hausdok]

Hi Jim and Dave,

I told myself the same thing. The problem is that is a plain rectangle of a room. No mirrors, no panels, nothing. After they left I stayed there for about ten minutes trying to puzzle it out logically. I couldn't resolve it.

[Jim Katen]

I've watched Penn shoot a gun at Teller and Teller caught the bullet in his teeth. I've tried everything I can think of and I can't puzzle it out. But one thing I know for sure is that Penn didn't actually fire a bullet at Teller . . .

[Rob Amaral]

Mike---Keep us posted sir... Very odd..

[ghentjr]

Rest assured, you met "the man" (whoever he was). House we renovated in NJ had a spirit. Nellie. She lived in the house from birth and was in a nursing home when we purchased the house. One day she died and moved back to her house. Just ask my kids - they had regular nighttime conversations with her and both my wife and I had periodic friendly run-ins with her.

In CT we were asked many times to inspect houses that were known to have spirits. One of my inspectors was featured in a National newspaper regarding a poltergeist house. Mostly, these folks live under the stairs, but sometimes they like you enough to visit.

[Jim Baird]

Just chalk it up to experience Mike. Those clients may not have seen the ghost but it does sound like they felt him.

I call myself a rationalist too but I am no denier of other kinds of reality.

[Jerry Simon]

I call myself a rationalist too but I am no denier of other kinds of reality.

No kidding; IMHO, our reality is weird enough to discount other types of realities.

[kurt]

Mr. O's broken through to the other side....through the looking glass...he's found the worm hole...but he doesn't fit...time for a new diet...must...pass...thru............wormhole.....

[mlparham]

Mr. O's broken through to the other side....through the looking glass...he's found the worm hole...but he doesn't fit...time for a new diet...must...pass...thru............wormhole.....

My new book; The Worm Hole Diet, How To Enter Crawlspaces and Time Travel.