PICKAWAY – A local ghost and horror film addict, shares an update to his local Circleville haunting just before Halloween. Everything below is Jones’s true words unedited.
It’s been three years since I last updated the Scioto Post readers on the haunted activity here in my Mound Street (Circleville) home. Those stories got a lot of attention and feedback. In fact, it was because of one of those stories I was introduced to a former owner of this home and learned about her experiences with ghosts and spirits in this house. She reported unexplained paranormal activity for the duration of her time living here. As I mentioned in my previous articles, I have kept a journal of the activity for many years. This has proven invaluable in documenting the strange events on the property. I look back and realize how many things I forget. I found out long ago I couldn’t just rely on my memory. As I go over the last couple of years in the journal, I’m struck by how much of the activity has seemed to center on electronics.
11/14/2018 – I awoke to a noise coming from downstairs, it was keeping me awake so I got up and went downstairs to see what it was. The Roomba vacuum cleaner had turned itself on in the living room. It left its charging port and was hitting the wall over and over making the noise that woke me. There have been multiple occurrences of the Amazon Alexa devices turning on and talking with no prompting from anyone. Random songs will begin playing. Alexa will answer questions that no one asked. One time last year it almost seemed like something was using the Alexa in an attempt to communicate. She said “hello” (a statement I’ve never heard it say, this device is reactive. It doesn’t start conversations it responds to outside prompts) about 30 seconds after the weird “hello” it again lit up and this time said “welcome”. I tried responding back to it, but whatever was there seemed to be gone and I got no more unprompted communication.
8/24/19 – My desk lamp on my nightstand turned itself on in the middle of the night. I turned it off, but when I woke back up in the morning it was on again. There have been almost ten different occurrences of phantom baby cries. My mother, sister, brother-in-law, and I have all heard baby cries when no baby was here. It’s interesting the baby cries happened shortly after my little newborn nephew started to come over and visit. We had never heard any of these phantom cries before my nephew came. I can’t help but think whatever is here was mimicking the cries of the baby.
1/27/21 – Around midnight I was still awake, and, in the kitchen, I was whistling while getting something to drink, I suddenly stopped when I heard someone else whistling from behind me. About thirty minutes later my mom awoke to tell me she heard whistling coming from outside her upstairs bedroom window.
Now, this next event was a real shocker… I was tossing a tennis ball across the room for our dog, the ball switched directions in midair and landed in the opposite direction I threw it. It was as if the ball hit an invisible wall and bounced back towards me. I was absolutely stunned. It also appears I may have a doppelganger, several times people in the house have seen me in places I wasn’t at, or at times I wasn’t even home. They’ve seen me walking up the stairs, peeking around the corner, or even out in the backyard.
8/16/21 – I distinctly heard someone say the word “NO” in my ear as I was standing in the hallway.
10/14/20 – a visiting friend reported seeing the laundry room door open on its own, and then shut itself right after. One of the more dramatic events happened last year. My mom, my sister, and I were sitting in the living room talking and watching television when the alarm system started blaring. I hurried and went to the alarm console and put in the code to turn it off. We thought it was odd, but we went back to watching the TV. A few minutes later the Circleville Police arrived saying someone (or something) had pushed the panic button on the wall alarm console. Of course, none of us did that or were even near it.
Shortly before Halloween 2019 was one of the most frightening events I’ve experienced yet. I was home alone and had just put on my coat getting ready to go outside. I was standing in the living room, and I felt someone grab the hood of my coat and pull. It pulled me back half a step then let go. Thinking that someone had come home and was maybe joking around with me, I said ‘Hey!’ and turned around and no one was there… I was still home alone. This experience had a profound effect on me. There was so denying what had happened. It was the very first time I had ever been touched or had physical contact with whatever haunts this house. It shocked and scared me at first. But I wouldn’t say the experience was negative. I still maintain I have yet to have a truly negative experience here or sense anything malevolent. I feel (and hope) that if there was something evil or dangerous in the house, I would get a sense of that. I still feel like these spirits or entities are passive, and at most are curious about us-the people they share this home with. I think perhaps they aren’t always aware of us all either. Maybe my family and I are ghosts to them? beings they catch fleeting glimpses of… haunting their home in whatever plane of existence or alternative dimension they now exist in. Interesting thought! Until next time; Happy Halloween.
