The Red Box

I have to say, I love stepping out into the night. Cold, dark air on my face, the smell of smoke from fires and the decay of leaves, with my equipment case in hand, hoping that tonight just may be the night that something happens.

Tonight it did.

The investigative team tonight was all girls. Girls talk way too much. It isn’t conducive to my nice, sterile, controlled lab atmosphere I like to maintain on investigations. There was a new girl tonight, Katy. This makes, Me = Miss Skeptic coupled with a trio of hard core believers in everything, and then some, who also claim to be psychic. It was frustrating for me, to say the least. Throw in a large side order of the owner of the residence itself, and it was like the three of them combined, plus a big old book of Fortean stuff on top. *sigh*

The house was lovely. Very close to the mission in San Juan Capistrano, which is, supposedly, haunted. This house would have been built right on the trails leading to the mission.

A man in his forties had called us. He lived in the house with his wife and three children. They were both the kind of people, when younger, you know everyone stopped to look at the prettiness of them. The woman looked exactly like an older Barbie doll. Her hair was totally freaking me out.

Anyway, the guy took Liz and I on a tour. He told some crazy stories. I didn’t believe him. He says there are three ghosts in the house, a little girl, an old lady and a guy he calls “The Messenger.” He claims to have always seen “spirits” and that the night before we came, he even talked to one and told “them” not to embarrass him. He also says the ghosts don’t let him go on certain websites and won’t let him go on Ebay to sell his Ouija board. Uh huh…

One of the most wild things we were told during the interview, which I was asked to do, (it was my first one), was that in a period of forty eight hours a bunch of things caught on fire: a truck, all four TVs, the well pump and the vcr was smoking.

There were a few reasons I didn’t believe the guy. Some of it was what in Italy we call a “skin feeling,” which I usually dismiss, but during the interview I’d ask something to which he’d answer “No,” then change his answer recounting some other crazy story. Or, he’d just take coincidental occurrences, and turn them into him having some amazing psychic power. For example, one day he was talking about Planet Of The Apes and then it was on TV that night. I’m not impressed, Sir.

So, I’m not expecting anything to happen, yet it does.

During the interview, we all sat in the living room. This room was connected to the dining room as well as the kitchen. Mounted on the side of a kitchen cabinet was a metal/iron lock box type of thing. The box opened, by itself, maybe a couple inches and then shut, with a click. I went over and examined that box myself. It was not easy to open, I kind of had to pry it a little with my fingers. I did it multiple times, when it closes it made that click sound and each time, the door kind of gets stuck. I just don’t see how it could possibly have opened by itself.

When the interview was done, Liz asked me where I wanted the camcorders set up. I said, for now, one in the living room, pointed at that box and another pointed toward the hallway as there seems to be so much activity there. Both cameras were set up. I stood there and watched the living room myself, for about fifteen minutes. I watched Liz do the setup of the living room cam, saw she pointed it directly at the box. After this, no one went near the cam. I was the closest, maybe twelve feet away. No one went near that camera. I know it because I stood there and watched myself for those fifteen minutes. When Liz came back to the room we checked the cams to be sure all was running well, and that dang living room cam moved approximately seven inches from where we had set it to film, (it was on a tripod).

I’m not saying anything paranormal happened. I’m also not saying it didn’t... all I know is, I cannot explain it.