Elsing’s 2nd Hand Shop

Investigation

This was a co-investigation with members of P.I.M (Paranormal Investigators of Milwaukee). H.P.I members present for the investigation were Barry, Krista, and Kurt, and the P.I.M members present for the investigation were Noah, Jaeson, and Candace.

Unlike the previous investigations at Elsing’s Second Hand Shop, we went in without a specific plan in mind. Working with two different paranormal research groups, we felt that it would just be best to play it by ear.

Krista and Kurt arrived at the shop mid-afternoon and met up with Noah and Jaeson who arrived soon after. We walked around the shop and discussed a bit about the experiences that both groups had there. Barry and Candace would be arriving later, so Noah, Jaeson, Kurt, and Krista went to dinner with Vicky and Phil. We arrived back at the shop around 7:00, with Barry and Candace arriving soon after.

The H.P.I members and the P.I.M members then sat down to discuss each group’s experiences in the shop, finding out that several incidents were experienced by both groups during their separate investigations. Plans were made for some of the things we wanted to do that evening.

Jennifer, a friend of the Elsing’s was present, along with their son Nick and his girlfriend Katelyn.

The investigation began, and the investigators began by focusing on the areas that both groups decided to be the most active. Throughout the night, the areas that were focused on the most were the furniture room, the book room, the second floor/attic, and the storage rooms in the back of the basement. Other areas were also investigated, but these were the primary areas. The groups also switched around, sometimes splitting into all male or all female groups.

The investigation continued until around 3:00 am when everyone bedded down for the evening.

Nothing of note occurred during the sleeping hours beyond a few suspicious creaks and bumps, which could have been caused by many things (the building expanding and contracting, etc).

Personal Experiences

• Noah, Jaeson, Kurt, and Krista were down in the furniture room when they first arrived at Elsing’s shop and were discussing some of the things that had occurred there when a noise was heard that sounded like a recorded voice.  The voice could only be heard while others were talking and what was being said by the voice could not be made out.  Noah stated that something very similar had occurred during P.I.M.’s investigation of Elsing’s shop the previous weekend.
• Noah, Jaeson, Kurt, Krista, and Barry were doing a walkthrough of the back storage rooms in the basement. Upon leaving one of these rooms, Noah noticed that the door actually swung shut on it’s own behind the last person (Barry) as she walked out of the room. Barry didn’t have her hands anywhere near the door at the time, and no other members had touched it. Several attempts were made at recreating this (a stray breeze, the breeze from Barry walking past the door, the door maybe being uneven and able to close on it’s own, etc), but the door shutting on it’s own could not be recreated.
• Nick and Katelyn were sitting in the book room, when Katelyn was struck with a sudden sick, nauseous feeling and left the room.
• During one point in the investigation, Kurt was sitting in the cubbyhole beneath the stairs while everyone else was in the furniture room talking. At one point, Kurt called for the other investigators to be quiet because he heard what sounded like a young girl sobbing in the cubbyhole next to him. Noah came over and asked Kurt where the sound seemed to come from, and Kurt said that it sounded as if someone was sitting at his feet and a little to the right of him. Noah said that he had similar experiences in that same, exact location.
• At another point during the investigation, Noah and Vicky were trying to get the spirit of the little girl to make a noise in the hallway outside the bookroom while they were also speaking angrily to the male presence that is thought to be in the building. During this time, the room seemed to become MUCH colder and darker, just as it had during HPI’s first investigation there. During this time, Noah received a sharp, searing pain in his right temple. Vicky, who was sitting on a chair in the furniture room, had to move because she felt like someone was standing behind her, and she was unbearably warm. Everyone thought this was odd because the rest of us in the room were freezing. Barry went to sit in the empty chair, and she felt the same warmth that Vicky had felt there.
• Kurt and Noah went to the back storage rooms to attempt to talk to the male presence and to tell it that it was not wanted there. As they were doing this, the air in the storage room began to feel thicker, and the room began to feel more and more “charged”, but this feeling instantly dissipated when another investigator walked into the room.
• At several different locations and several different times throughout the evening, various strange noises were heard. These included things such as hearing the stairs creak as if someone was walking on them while all of us were in the furniture room, to hearing what sounded like someone murmuring in the hallway outside the bookroom when nobody was in it.

Conclusion

Another wonderful investigation at Elsing’s Second Hand Shop that resulted in many very strong, very interesting personal experiences, but no real concrete evidence.

The voice that Kurt heard in the cubbyhole was not caught on audio. The creaks and fleeting sounds heard throughout the night could also have very rational explanations.

One point to make, though, was the discovery of a possible explanation for the cat sounds that have been heard in a number of the locations in Elsing’s shop, but most often on the top floor.  Barry noticed a couple of cats across the street from the shop that proceeded to cross the street and move around to the back of the shop.  Being that the top floor has boarded-up windows…and at least one window that is partially open…it is plausible that the cat sounds heard there could be coming from real live cats and not from anything paranormal.  These cat noises had been reported by not only H.P.I and P.I.M, but also by other groups that have investigated the shop.  Although it would be harder for the cats to be heard in other parts of the shop that are more sealed off, it can’t be disregarded entirely.

As always, though, due to the impressive personal experiences, the potential that the site is haunted can’t be easily dismissed. Too many things have happened there (to us, to other groups, to customers, to the owners, and to friends of the owners) to write off the experiences as the result of an “overactive imagination”.