Disturbances in a rented upstairs apartment above an old store
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], from Portland, Oregon, describes living with their wife and mother in an upstairs apartment above a store they call the Liberal Store, north of a town they pronounce Malala. The caller reports a room that stayed cool in extreme summer heat, their mother being touched and smelling lilac, dishes found dumped in the sink, a dog refusing to enter a bathroom, Bibles found on the floor open to passages about King David, and knocking on the upstairs door and windows. The caller says the family moved out and that their wife and mother still will not enter the store.
This clip comes from the source recording. AI chose where it starts and ends, so it may start or end a little early or late. The word-for-word transcript is not published. You can hear the source recording on the Internet Archive (file “Ghost to Ghost 1994.mp3”, starting at 54:22). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
[name withheld], calling from Portland, Oregon, on KEX, says they rented an upstairs apartment above a store they call the Liberal Store, just north of the place they pronounce Malala. This was several years before the broadcast. [name withheld] moved in with their wife and their mother. [name withheld] says the summer was around 110 degrees, yet one large bedroom stayed cool enough that they could play handball against the wall without sweating. [name withheld] slept well despite working graveyard shifts. [name withheld] says their mother began having episodes. Chandeliers swung. She reported fingerprints on her arms from something touching her, and she would shout that something had touched her. A lilac perfume smell was present. One night, [name withheld] says, they, their wife, and her younger sister and brother were eating hamburgers and watching television when they heard a crash. The dishes that had been washed earlier were all in the sink. Their wife's stepfather, who said he did not believe it, brought his 65-pound Alaskan Husky, Butch. The dog whimpered in the bathroom, would not come out, walked around what [name withheld] describes as an invisible pylon in the doorway, and ran out the door. Three nights later [name withheld] came home early from their graveyard shift to find their wife and mother on the tailgate of their pickup. Their wife said she wanted to move that night and showed [name withheld] all their Bibles on the floor, open to passages about King David. The host told [name withheld] he agreed with their wife. [name withheld] says they moved the following week. [name withheld] adds that a dining-room chandelier would swing at any time, that their cat flew backward out of the room they liked and would not come back into the apartment, and that their wife called them at work one night saying someone was beating on the upstairs door and knocking on the windows, two and a half stories up. [name withheld] says their mother believes it was their grandmother, upset because they were out of state when she died. [name withheld] says their wife and mother still will not go into the store. [name withheld] says they have heard that several families moved in and moved right back out.
Reported events, in order
- 0:08
[name withheld] says they rented an upstairs apartment above the Liberal Store, north of the town they call Malala, and moved in with their wife and mother.
- 0:26
[name withheld] describes a large bedroom that stayed cool and in which they never sweated during a summer of about 110-degree heat.
- 0:47
[name withheld] says their mother began having episodes: chandeliers swinging, fingerprints on her arms from something touching her, and a vivid lilac perfume smell.
- 0:59
While eating hamburgers and watching television, they, their wife, and her younger sister and brother heard a crash. Dishes washed earlier were found scooped into the sink.
- 1:15
Their wife's stepfather brought his 65-pound Alaskan Husky, Butch. The dog whimpered in the bathroom, would not come out, walked around an invisible pylon in the doorway, and ran out.
- 1:51
Three nights later [name withheld] came home early from their graveyard shift, and their wife said she wanted to move that night.
- 2:11
[name withheld] says all their Bibles were on the floor, open to the part of the Bible about King David.
- 2:22
The host tells the caller he agrees with their wife and would be gone.
- 2:27
[name withheld] says they moved the following week, and that their mother believes it was their grandmother, upset because they were out of state when she died.
- 2:35
[name withheld] adds that a dining-room chandelier would swing at any given time, and that their cat flew backward out of the room they liked and would not come back into the apartment.
- 2:48
[name withheld] says their wife called them at work saying someone was beating on the upstairs door and knocking on the windows, two and a half stories off the ground.
- 2:57
[name withheld] says they moved the next day and that their wife and mother still will not stop and go into the store.
- 3:09
[name withheld] says they have heard stories that several families moved in and moved right back out.
- 3:59
[name withheld] swears the story is true, saying their wife is in the bedroom listening on the radio and their mother is standing there looking at them.
Claims
Each claim is labeled as something the person telling the story noticed (observation), what they made of it (interpretation), something others told them (hearsay), or something the host said (host statement).
- observation· 0:08
[name withheld] says they rented an upstairs apartment above an old store called the Liberal Store, north of the town they call Malala, several years before the broadcast.
- observation· 0:34
[name withheld] says one large room stayed cool and they never sweated in it despite summer heat around 110 degrees.
- hearsay· 0:47
[name withheld] reports their mother's episodes, including chandeliers swinging and marks left on her arms.
- hearsay· 0:51
[name withheld] reports fingerprints left on their mother's arms from something touching her.
- observation· 0:56
[name withheld] says a lilac perfume smell was vividly present.
- observation· 1:11
[name withheld] says that after a crash, dishes that had been washed were all scooped into the sink.
- observation· 1:41
[name withheld] says the stepfather's husky walked around an invisible pylon in the doorway and would not go back.
- observation· 2:11
[name withheld] says all their Bibles were found on the floor, open to passages about King David.
- interpretation· 2:27
Their mother believes the activity was their grandmother, upset because they were out of state when she died.
- observation· 2:42
[name withheld] says their cat flew backward out of the room they liked and would not come back into the apartment.
- hearsay· 2:48
[name withheld] reports their wife's story that someone was beating on the upstairs door.
- hearsay· 3:09
[name withheld] says they have heard that several families moved in and moved right back out.
- host statement· 2:22
The host says that he agrees with [name withheld]'s wife and would have left.
Scores, with reasons
An AI model gave these scores using a fixed set of scoring rules (scoring-v1). They are editorial judgments and rough guides, not the odds that anything paranormal happened. How scoring works.
This is a resident's own story with concrete particulars (a named store, the dog's name and weight, summer heat, a graveyard shift, the Bibles' pages) and a coherent order that answers the host's questions. Several episodes, however, come from the caller's mother and wife rather than from what the caller saw, and the story does not address any ordinary explanation.
Evidence for and against
- Lived there themselves: [quote withheld]
- Concrete detail and numbers: a 110-degree summer and a 65-pound husky named Butch.
- A coherent order of events from moving in to moving out, with a clear end point: [quote withheld]
- Key episodes come secondhand from their mother and wife, for example [quote withheld]
- The caller says [quote withheld] while also describing the dish crash in the same apartment.
- Easy ordinary explanations (building construction, dog behavior, objects falling) are not considered.
- The automatic transcript renders the town as “Malala” and includes an odd phrase, “Beautiful, slimming weather,” so the wording is uncertain in places.
- A station break cuts the interview, so later clarifications fall outside this part of the broadcast.
- 0:08
- 1:11
- 2:11
What the model inferred (not said on air): The split in the component scores (strong on closeness, detail, and consistency; weaker on alternative explanations and on how much is firsthand versus secondhand) is my reasoning, not something the caller states.
The story gives specifics that sound checkable (a named store, a named area, a named dog, a described building), but nothing was checked and no physical evidence is claimed. Witnesses are named only as family members, and none of them speaks on air in this part of the broadcast.
Evidence for and against
- Named location and building details that could in principle be looked up: [quote withheld]
- A named dog and its weight: [quote withheld] and [quote withheld]
- Additional witnesses are claimed, including one described as skeptical.
- No photograph, recording, document, or physical trace is offered.
- No second witness speaks on air in this part of the broadcast. The host only says he will fetch the wife after the break.
- Statements about other families are plainly hearsay: “I've heard stories.”
- The wife's promised on-air confirmation falls outside this part of the broadcast.
- The store name and town spelling come from the automatic transcript.
- 0:08
- 3:09
- 3:59
What the model inferred (not said on air): The caller's sworn statement and their offer of relatives as witnesses are assertions, not backing from someone else. Under the scoring guide they keep this in the range for checkable specifics given but not checked.
The story involves repeated intrusion into a family home: physical contact with the mother, objects moved, a terrified large dog, and knocking on an upper-floor door and windows. It ends with the family moving out at night. The ending is less ominous than the escalation, since [name withheld] says it ended for them once they left.
Evidence for and against
- Physical contact is reported: [quote withheld]
- Objects were moved in the home: [quote withheld]
- Knocking at an unreachable upper door and windows at night.
- A 65-pound husky refusing to leave a bathroom and then running out.
- No figure is described, and no injury beyond marks is reported.
- The caller says the activity stopped for them after they moved: [quote withheld]
- The host's encouragement and the caller's brisk delivery are not treated as evidence either way.
- The mother's and wife's experiences come secondhand rather than in their own words.
- Gaps in the transcript may leave out detail that would affect tone.
- 0:51
- 2:48
- 1:49
What the model inferred (not said on air): The score reflects what happens in the story, repeated intrusion at home and a family fleeing, not any judgment about whether it happened.
The pattern is a familiar haunted-rental sequence: a swinging chandelier, moved dishes, perfume, a dog that refuses a room, knocking, and a family moving out. It stands out for a room that stays cool in extreme heat, Bibles found open to passages about King David, and the dog's reported detour around an “invisible pylon” in a doorway.
Evidence for and against
- Unusual detail: a room that stayed cool through a 110-degree summer.
- Unusual detail: [quote withheld]
- Unusual detail: the dog [quote withheld]
- Stock elements dominate: a swinging chandelier, lilac perfume, moved dishes, knocking, and a pet refusing to enter.
- The ending, in which the family moves out and the activity stops for them, is a common one.
- The originality score is a rough editorial judgment from the content only. The comparison with the rest of the archive is not available at this stage.
- 0:34
- 2:11
- 1:41
What the model inferred (not said on air): The weighing of familiar against distinctive elements is my editorial judgment, not a claim in the transcript.
Scoring confidence 0.70 · analysis confidence 0.72 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller's own telling about the apartment and several events; The caller's secondhand reports of their mother's and wife's experiences; The caller's secondhand report of other families moving out; The caller's statement that their wife was listening and their mother was present; neither speaks in this part of the broadcast; No photograph, recording, document, or physical trace offered. The originality score blends the model's score (55) with how rare the story's details are across the archive. This method is still provisional.
Ordinary explanations to consider
These are possibilities only. None is a finding about what happened.
- The cool bedroom could come from the building's construction, ventilation, or orientation rather than anything strange. · [name withheld] says it was about 110 degrees outside for most of the summer, yet they never got hot in that one room.
- The dog's reluctance and whimpering in the bathroom could come from distress at an unfamiliar place, heat, or being shut in, rather than a reaction to something unseen. · [name withheld] says the dog whimpered in the bathroom and would not come out until they forced him.
- The crash and the dishes in the sink, and the Bibles on the floor, could come from an unstable surface, vibration, or another person in the household moving them. · [name withheld] says they heard a big crash and found the dishes scooped into the sink, and later that all the Bibles were on the floor.
- Knocking on an upper-floor door and windows could come from wind, birds, branches, or the building moving rather than a person or something unseen. · [name withheld] notes the door was two and a half stories off the ground, which [name withheld] treats as ruling out a person.
What stands out
Beyond the familiar poltergeist material, the story includes an unusually cool room in extreme summer heat, which [name withheld] describes as a place they liked, and the detail that all the Bibles were found open to passages about King David. The dog test was set up deliberately by a stepfather who said he did not believe it. The dog's reported route around an “invisible pylon” is an unusual detail of space.
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