Rented Ohio mining-town house: footsteps, greyhounds, and a man at the door
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], from Hanford, tells a story they say happened when they were a child. [name withheld]'s aunt and uncle rented a house in a small mining town in Ohio. The former occupant had been sent to a nursing home against his will. The caller reports a series of household disturbances. They say they and their girl cousin saw two greyhounds in their shared bedroom at night. [name withheld]'s aunt met a man at the back door, and the aunt fired a shotgun through the door. The next morning, grapes were found withered on the vine. The story ends with the family moving soon afterward.
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 1996.mp3”, starting at 42:52). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
[name withheld], calling from “Hanford,” tells Art they have two ghost stories and begins with one from a small mining town in Ohio where they lived as a child. [name withheld]'s aunt and uncle, [name withheld] says, rented a house whose previous occupant, an old man, had been sent to a nursing home against his will and had sworn he would come back. He died in the nursing home. The family moved in, and, according to [name withheld], strange things began: the smell of cabbage boiling, footsteps going down the hallway, and the toilet flushing in the middle of the night with no one there. [name withheld] then describes going to spend the night with their cousins at about age five or six. [name withheld] and their girl cousin woke in the middle of the night to find two greyhounds standing in the bedroom with their leashes sticking straight up in the air. [name withheld] says they left and wanted to go home. Later, [name withheld] says, their aunt was bathing one of the children in the kitchen sink when she looked out the back door and saw a man standing there who would not answer her calls. The aunt got a shotgun and fired point-blank through the door. A neighbor came running, and no one was there. When the aunt gave a description, the neighbor identified it as the old man who had lived in the house. The next morning, [name withheld] says, the grapes their aunt meant to pick for jelly were all withered on the vine, and the family moved soon afterward. Art responds only that he does not blame them, and he thanks the caller.
Reported events, in order
- 0:08
[name withheld] says they have two ghost stories and begins one from a small mining town in Ohio where they lived as a child.
- 0:16
[name withheld]'s aunt and uncle rented a house whose former occupant, an old man, was sent to a nursing home against his will and swore he would come back.
- 0:26
The old man is said to have died in the nursing home. The aunt and uncle moved in, and strange things reportedly began.
- 0:30
[name withheld] reports the smell of cabbage boiling, footsteps in the hallway, and the toilet flushing in the middle of the night with no one there.
- 0:41
[name withheld], spending the night with their cousins at about age five or six, says they and their girl cousin woke at night to see two greyhounds in the bedroom with their leashes sticking straight up.
- 0:59
[name withheld] says they left and wanted to go home.
- 1:02
[name withheld]'s aunt, bathing a child in the kitchen sink, reportedly saw a man at the back door who would not answer her.
- 1:18
The aunt reportedly got a shotgun and fired point-blank through the door. A neighbor came running, and no one was found outside.
- 1:28
The neighbor, given her description, is said to have identified the figure as the old man who had lived there.
- 1:47
The next morning, the grapes [name withheld]'s aunt meant to pick for jelly were reportedly all withered on the vine.
- 1:51
The aunt and uncle moved soon afterward.
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).
- hearsay· 0:30
In the house [name withheld]'s aunt and uncle rented, the household reportedly smelled cabbage boiling although, [name withheld] says, no one was cooking it.
- hearsay· 0:34
The household reportedly heard footsteps in the hallway and the toilet flushing in the middle of the night with no one present.
- observation· 0:41
[name withheld] says they and their girl cousin, then about five or six, woke in the middle of the night to see two greyhounds standing in the bedroom with their leashes pointing straight up.
- hearsay· 1:02
[name withheld]'s aunt, bathing a child in the kitchen sink, reportedly saw a man standing outside the back door who would not answer her calls.
- hearsay· 1:18
[name withheld]'s aunt reportedly fetched a shotgun and fired it point-blank through the door. A neighbor came running, and no one was found outside.
- hearsay· 1:28
[name withheld] says the neighbor, on hearing their aunt's description, identified the figure as the old man who had lived in the house.
- observation· 1:47
[name withheld] says the grapes their aunt intended to pick for jelly the next morning were found withered on the vine.
- hearsay· 0:16
The former occupant of the rented house is said to have been sent to a nursing home against his will and to have sworn he would return. He then died there.
- interpretation· 0:26
The caller's framing is that the dead former occupant came back to the house after dying in the nursing home.
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 typical brief story mixing one firsthand experience with family reports: one direct experience as a child, several secondhand household reports, a coherent order of events, and almost nothing that can be checked. Ordinary explanations fit the individual reports fairly easily, and the caller does not separate what they perceived from what they concluded.
Evidence for and against
- The caller describes one event they say they experienced personally, with a specific age and setting: [quote withheld]
- The sequence is coherent and follows a clear order: the move-in, the disturbances, the overnight visit, the aunt's encounter, the grapes, and the move
- The answers fit the story without shifting. The description given to the neighbor is answered by an identification.
- No town name, street, dates, or family surnames are given, so nothing in the story can be looked up
- Most of the material is secondhand within the family: [quote withheld]
- Several elements have easy ordinary explanations: images on waking for the bedroom sighting, plumbing and house noise for the footsteps and flushing, and cooking smells for the cabbage
- The labels showing who is speaking are unclear for several lines in the early part of the story (a line marked as the host carries what appears to be the caller's words)
- Nothing is said about the era of the events beyond [quote withheld]
- “at Hanford” cannot be tied to a definite place from the transcript
- 0:41
- 0:56
- 0:08
What the model inferred (not said on air): The split among components is my reading of the content only. Nothing in the transcript shows whether the caller is honest, and the caller's way of speaking is not considered.
This sits in the range for claimed second witnesses and details that were not checked. The caller names a setting and several people, but nothing is documented and no second witness speaks on air, so nothing can be independently checked from the recording.
Evidence for and against
- Concrete but unchecked details exist: a rented house in an unnamed Ohio mining town, an old man sent to a nursing home, two greyhounds, a shotgun, and grape vines
- Several other witnesses are claimed (the girl cousin, the aunt, and the aunt's neighbor), though none speak on air
- No documents, photographs, recordings, or physical traces are claimed or examined
- No details that can be checked: no town, street, surname, or date
- The core claims are unstructured personal testimony
- It is not stated whether the “neighbor guy” ever spoke to the host. He does not appear on air in this part of the broadcast
- 0:41
- 1:28
What the model inferred (not said on air): I am treating [quote withheld] and the aunt's story as claimed witnesses, not as backing, per the scoring guide.
The child in a bedroom and the silent figure shot at through a door give the story an unsettling tone. But the events are brief and the telling is matter-of-fact, which keeps it in the middle range rather than frightening.
Evidence for and against
- Something unseen in a child's bedroom at night, described by a witness who was five or six at the time
- A man standing silently at the back door who does not answer, followed by a gunshot at point-blank range through the door
- Grapes found withered on the vine the next morning, an unexplained detail that closes the story
- The story is told in a plain, summary way with no lasting dread described
- The ending is a kind of resolution: the family moved out
- It is not stated which child the aunt was bathing, or whether the cousin's family kept living there
- 1:12
- 1:47
What the model inferred (not said on air): The rating is about how the story plays to a listener, not about whether anything happened.
A conventional haunted-rental frame carrying two or three truly distinctive details, especially the greyhounds with upright leashes and the withered grapes. That places it above stock material but short of an unusual event overall.
Evidence for and against
- Two greyhounds standing in a bedroom with their leashes sticking straight up in the air is a highly specific, unusual image
- The closing detail of grapes found withered on the vine the morning after the shotgun incident is distinctive
- The earlier claim that the old man was sent to a nursing home “against his will” and swore to come back gives the story an unusual premise
- The frame, a family in a rented house said to be haunted by a former occupant who died elsewhere, ending with a move, is a familiar one
- Footsteps, night noises, and a figure at a door are stock elements
- The greyhound detail is reported in only one line and is not explained further
- 0:41
- 1:47
What the model inferred (not said on air): The provisional score reflects content alone. The comparison with the rest of the archive is not worked out here.
Scoring confidence 0.60 · analysis confidence 0.64 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller's firsthand story of the bedroom sighting as a child; The caller's secondhand reports of household events blamed on the house, as told by their aunt and uncle; The caller's secondhand report of their aunt's encounter at the back door and the neighbor's identification; No photographs, recordings, documents, or marks claimed or examined; No second witness speaks on air, and the cousin, aunt, and neighbor are named only by relationship.
Ordinary explanations to consider
These are possibilities only. None is a finding about what happened.
- Images from half-sleep on waking in the middle of the night could account for the greyhounds standing with leashes upright, especially for two children of five or six sharing a room. · The caller says they and their cousin were [quote withheld] and had just woken in the middle of the night when they saw the dogs. Images on waking and half-sleep perception are a commonly suggested ordinary explanation for such bedroom sightings.
- Plumbing, footsteps carried through the structure, cooking smells from the house or from neighboring homes, or a household member moving at night could produce the reported smells, footsteps, and flushing. · The events blamed on the house are ordinary household events at night: cooking smells, footsteps, and a toilet flushing with “no one” seen by the caller.
- The man seen at the back door at night could have been a living person, such as a trespasser or passerby, who left before anyone got outside. The neighbor's identification was made afterward from a description. · The aunt is said to have fired [quote withheld] at a figure that was no longer there when the neighbor arrived.
What stands out
The most distinctive element is the reported sighting of two greyhounds standing in a child's bedroom with their leashes pointing straight up in the air. The caller offers this detail without further explanation. The story also closes on a small unexplained physical detail: grapes found withered on the vine the morning after the aunt fired a shotgun at a figure outside the back door.
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