Arrival
We were arrived at Elsing’s Second Hand shop at around 5:30 pm and planned to investigate throughout the night, and then spending the night until the next day.
A single axis EMF meter, Pyrometer, Sony DCR-SR80 SuperNightShot hard drive camcorder, Sony Cybershot 3.1 megapixel digital camera, UV flashlights, two other camcorders, two-way radios, and various digital voice recorders were used during this investigation.
Investigation
When we arrived at Elsing’s Second Hand shop, Vicky and Phil were there to greet us. We dropped off our equipment and started off by giving a tour to Steve, Michael, and Matt as they had not been there before. Then we had Steve and Matt take temperature, and EMF baseline readings throughout the store, while I walked around with Michael so he could get a feeling for the place. Michael is one of PIM’s sensitives. I had Michael write down everything that he had seen or felt. Then we set up some video recorders on the top floor along with a digital recorder and another digital recorder in the furniture room and we then headed down to grab a bite to eat at the Koffee Kup diner while Phil and Vicky headed home for a bit.
Once we were done eating we called Vicky and she and Phil met us back at the shop.
While we were at dinner, Michael explained to us what he had seen while in the shop. Some of it matched closely with some of the known history of the shop while other things were new. I had Michael type up his notes and they are included below.
The following is the notes by Michael that he got while at Elsing’s Second Hand Shop:
“When I clear my mind and relax I sometimes see things in my mind, and sometimes information just comes to me. I can’t explain how it works, I just know thing these things. With that being said…
On the second floor I felt and knew there was a woman there. She was wearing a white dress; she was white and slim with medium length hair. I feel her name is Margaret and she was worried about someone named Ann. Also on the second floor, there is a man in a business suit in the front of the room. In the middle of the same room, there is an older white man sitting on a bed. I felt there was a fire in this area.
On the main floor, there is an older man wearing an apron in the front room by the window. I think he is part of a restaurant.
In the basement, there is a little girl with curly hair and a short dress. In the furniture room, there is also a man who I feel is a butcher and he is worried about his inventory. There is also a lady who seems to be busy cooking and minding her own business who is going between the book room and the holiday room. In the back room, near the furnace room, there is a black man wearing bib overhauls and is barefoot. He has short hair and is very angry but I don’t know why.”
To clarify, when Michael refers to the second floor he is talking about the top floor of the shop that is used for storage and the main floor is the floor you enter on from the street.
Once we returned to the shop after eating we shared this information with Vicky and Phil and talked with them for a bit about the history of the building that they know about.
It must be said that Michael came into the investigation with no prior knowledge about the store other than it was located in Stoughton and it is a second hand shop currently. It is interesting to note that he sensed the little girl that many others have sensed in the shop, and he also was able to locate a woman upstairs that may or may not be one of the brothel workers that are rumored to have worked at the Grand Hotel.
After relating our findings with Vicky and Phil, we got our equipment together and waited for Pam, Vicky’s friend to arrive. We set up Michael’s camcorder to record in the furniture room as a stationary camera all night. We also used Michael’s digital voice recorder to record in the furniture room all night. We set up Vicky’s digital voice recorder to record on the main floor all night as the last time PIM had investigated we had reports of a growling and a screeching sound coming from the main floor that we were unable to capture. We left one of Steve’s camcorders on the top floor to record all night as well.
Once Pam had arrived, we split into two teams and headed out to investigate. The teams were Noah, Michael, and Pam in team one, and Vicky, Phil, Steve, and Matt in team two. Team one headed up to the top floor to begin investigating while team two headed down to the basement. We wanted to keep a floor between us at all times to try and lessen the chance of contaminating our own evidence. We used two-way radios to communicate between teams, and we used only UV flashlights for the investigation.
PIM has been experimenting with UV flashlight use for some time now. It is reported that UV light will not be picked up by IR cameras. Flashlights with red films over them, which are commonly used by paranormal investigators to try and preserve their night vision, will be picked up. In an attempt to remove one more possible confounding element to the investigation we are using UV flashlights to try and remove the possibility that any light anomalies that are captured on video are coming from our own flashlights. UV flashlights do have a draw back in that they actually break down rhodopsin, the protein in your eye that gives you night vision, quicker than white light. PIM believes it is better to capture good evidence on video than to see it yourself. Unfortunately, due to the filters used in modern cameras, when NightShot is engaged on the cameras it removes the UV and IR filters it uses during normal shooting. This allows the UV light to be seen by the cameras. PIM is currently experimenting with UV filters that we can add to the camera to try and regain the UV filtration that normally occurs as well as seeing if we can modify the camera we have now internally to allow it to be in NightShot mode without removing its UV filter.
Once both teams were in position, we began with a period of sitting in silence and just getting a feel for the room. Team one started doing EVP sessions after about 10 min. of sitting. While we were upstairs, Michael informed Noah that Margaret seemed to be interested in him. Noah tried to get her to communicate in some way but to now avail. There were some strange noises heard while on the top floor but it is hard to say what caused them. No major events occurred while team one was on the top floor. No major events were reported from team two in the basement either.
After about a half hour or so, the two teams switched locations and Phil headed home. Team one started investigating in the furniture room of the basement. Michael’s digital voice recorder had stopped recording during the previous session, and so he was trying to change the batteries in it. Noah’s voice recorder was in his pocket and turned off. Pam had her voice recorder in her hand and had just set it down as she was worried about accidentally hitting buttons when we all heard what sounded like a recording of someone talking. We instantly questioned Pam about her voice recorder since she had just mentioned seconds before about hitting buttons on it but it was not playing but recording. The talking lasted for mere seconds but was definitely distinguishable as talking. Similar phenomenon has been reported by other groups in the past and we actually experienced this same phenomenon with different people in the same room a week later. This will be reported in PIM and HPI’s joint report.
After that excitement we began investigating by doing some EVP work and moving to the various rooms in the basement. Noah was intrigued to try and interact with the angry black man that Michael had sensed in the back room of the basement. So team one headed to that room and we tried to communicate with the entity. While doing so Michael sensed that the black man was moving back and forth between two of the rooms in the basement. It would move between the back room where Michael had originally sensed it and the room with the stairs that come up by the bathrooms on the main floor. The entity seemed to be trying to avoid us. Try as we might we could not get a recordable response from the black man. No other events occurred during team one’s investigation.
Team two did have some things to report. The sound of a cat was heard while they were on the top floor and Matt reported to have been touched while on the top floor. EVP sessions were conducted as well. No other events of importance were reported from team two.
After about another half hour we gathered on the main floor and took a small break to allow people to use the restrooms and such. After our break, we decided to all do an EVP session downstairs. We tried to have Vicky read to Mary, the little girl ghost, and get her to turn pages but nothing really happened. We ensured that all of the guys were in the far end of the furniture room as we have been told that Mary does not like men. To no avail. Nothing else of note happened during this time period and after about another half hour we decided to take another break.
It was around 12:30 am at this time and Pam needed to head home. Vicky had been sick all week and was still not feeling well, so she decided to head to bed. So the rest of the group, Matt, Michael, Steve, and Noah, decided to head upstairs for one last investigation before heading to bed. We all headed to the top floor and Michael told us that Margaret was there but wasn’t paying attention to us. We did a little EVP but nothing really happened. After about 20 minutes we decided to pack it in and head to bed.
Michael went to a hotel as he has a bad back. Steve, Matt, and Noah all headed down to the furniture room to sleep. If you come down the stairs to the basement and walk directly into the furniture room this is how we were situated: Noah was down the far left aisle where a couch used to be and he was sleeping on that couch. Matt was in the middle aisle sleeping in a sleeping bag on the floor. Steve was on the right side of the room sleeping on an air mattress. Noah didn’t sleep all night. There were many sounds heard that night. Everyone heard what sounded like someone coming down the basement stairs. There also seemed to be someone walking in the hallway by the holiday and book rooms. Matt reported hearing someone walk right past him and Noah stated that he heard someone coming down the aisle he was sleeping in. During the night, Steve had a dream that he was in the exact position he was in while sleeping and that someone was choking him. He couldn’t see anyone but felt the sensation of someone choking him. He cried out in the dream and it woke him up. Noah heard him cry out but didn’t know he was awake so he didn’t say anything. Eventually Steve asked if anyone was awake and we all were. Nothing else major happened that night.
We all got up around 9 am. When we opened the door for Phil we noticed that the door to the top floor was closed over. When PIM left the top floor to head to bed we know we left that door open, and I asked everyone if they had closed it and the answer was no. We don’t know how the door came to be closed over.
After that we pretty much cleaned up, packed up our stuff, and headed home.
Conclusion
We went over all of our data carefully over the next couple months and found nothing concrete. Michael picked up a few EVPs that were intriguing that he captured on the top floor. Unfortunately since there are people that can be heard from the street on that floor we can’t rule that out. No video or picture evidence was recorded during our investigation. We had many personal experiences that we could not explain. Vicky did capture an EVP on her voice recorder that was left on the main floor. It sounds like a girl crying. It is hard to prove or disprove this EVP but we do need to keep in mind that there are very big windows on the main floor, and people passing by most of the night. That being said, it is an intriguing piece of evidence. PIM had a joint investigation with HPI the very next weekend and used the knowledge gained from this investigation to help with this next one.
PIM would like to again thank Vicky and Phil very much for their hospitality during the investigation. Better clients can not be found I am sure. We look forward to future investigations at Elsing’s Second Hand Shop.
