Footsteps from the basement, a shotgun and knives moved in a childhood home
A caller who identifies themselves as [name withheld], from Wichita, tells Art Bell about the house the caller lived in as a child. The caller says they and their sister heard footsteps coming up from the basement every night. The caller describes a night when their father found the locked-away shotgun lying at the bottom of the steps with shells around it. On another occasion, the kitchen knife drawer was found pulled out and knives were scattered on the floor. The story ends with the sister and parents swapping bedrooms and Art Bell suggesting the haunting followed the family rather than the family moving into haunted houses.
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 1997.mp3”, starting at 2:10:24). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
[name withheld], calling from Wichita, says that as a child every house the family lived in [quote withheld] In the house described, the caller’s room and their sister’s room were about ten feet from the steps down to the basement. The parents’ room was at the other end of the house. The caller says that every night they could hear footsteps coming up from the basement, which frightened the caller’s sister, and that “the ghost” seemed to favor the caller. One late night, the caller says, their sister started screaming and yelling and said something was at the bottom of the steps. The caller’s father came out, turned on the light, and found the shotgun lying at the bottom of the steps with shells scattered around it. [name withheld] says the father kept it locked away where nobody could get to it. [name withheld] says this period coincided with the parents fighting. On another occasion, the parents were out to dinner, and the caller and their sister were watching television. They heard a noise in the kitchen and assumed their cat had knocked something over. They found the knife drawer pulled out and knives scattered over the kitchen floor. According to [name withheld], the parents dismissed all of it as the children’s imagination or as the children “messing with them.” Afterward the caller’s sister moved to the other end of the house and the parents moved next to the steps, because she could not handle it. Art Bell responds that hauntings more likely followed the family than that they repeatedly moved into haunted houses.
Reported events, in order
- 0:13
[name withheld] says that as a child, every house the family lived in reportedly had a ghost or someone killed in it.
- 0:34
The caller says their room and their sister’s room were about ten feet from the steps down to the basement, with the parents’ room at the other end of the house.
- 0:46
The caller reports hearing footsteps coming up from the basement every night, which scared their sister.
- 0:58
The caller says the ghost seemed to favor them.
- 1:09
One late night the caller’s sister screamed and said something was at the bottom of the steps.
- 1:18
The caller’s father found the shotgun lying at the bottom of the steps with shells around it, though [name withheld] says it was kept locked away out of reach.
- 1:54
The caller says this happened around the time the parents were fighting.
- 2:07
While the parents were out to dinner, the caller and their sister heard a noise in the kitchen and assumed the cat had knocked something over.
- 2:24
They found the knife drawer pulled out and knives scattered over the kitchen floor.
- 2:38
The caller says the parents dismissed it as imagination or as the children messing with them.
- 2:59
The caller’s sister moved to the other end of the house, and the parents moved next to the steps.
- 3:11
Art Bell tells the caller the haunting probably followed the family rather than the family repeatedly moving into haunted houses.
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).
- interpretation· 0:23
The caller says the family’s houses each reportedly had a ghost or a death in them.
- observation· 0:47
The caller reports hearing footsteps coming up from the basement at night.
- hearsay· 1:09
The caller reports that their sister screamed and said something was at the bottom of the steps.
- observation· 1:18
The caller reports that their father’s shotgun was found at the bottom of the steps.
- observation· 1:29
The caller reports shells lying around the shotgun.
- observation· 2:24
The caller reports that the knife drawer had been pulled out.
- interpretation· 0:58
The caller says the ghost favored them.
- hearsay· 2:46
The caller reports that their parents dismissed the events as the children’s imagination.
- host statement· 3:35
Art Bell asserts that the haunting followed the family.
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.
A coherent, firsthand childhood story with some concrete detail, but with no date, address, or year, and with ordinary explanations partly available for the noises and the moved items.
Evidence for and against
- Firsthand report of events the caller says they experienced as a child.
- A coherent sequence: basement footsteps, the sister’s alarm, the shotgun found, a later kitchen incident, the family rearranging bedrooms.
- Concrete physical details: rooms about ten feet from the basement steps, a shotgun kept locked away, shells around it.
- No date, year, street, or town for the house is given.
- A childhood memory recalled decades later.
- The parents’ own stated view was that the children were imagining it or were responsible.
- A cat was the caller’s own first explanation for the kitchen noise.
- The labels showing who is speaking in the transcript alternate between the host and the caller in a way that does not match the content.
- The detail of what the sister saw at the bottom of the steps is vague.
- It is not clear whether all the events happened in one house.
- 0:47
- 1:18
- 2:24
What the model inferred (not said on air): My scoring reflects a truly firsthand but very general childhood memory. It is strong on sequence and some physical detail and weak on checkable specifics, and the caller does not address plausible ordinary readings.
Only the caller’s own word is present. The claimed second witnesses do not speak on air, and no document, photograph, or recording is presented or examined.
Evidence for and against
- Some checkable specifics are offered: the caller’s stated name and city.
- Claimed additional witnesses: the caller’s sister and father.
- No physical evidence, photographs, records, or documents are presented.
- No second witness speaks on air.
- No location or date for the house is given, so nothing could be checked.
- Whether the sister or father would confirm the story is unknown and untested.
- 0:03
- 1:09
What the model inferred (not said on air): Under the scoring guide, a claimed witness is not backing from someone else. Without a second witness on air or examined material, this sits in the lowest range, slightly above zero only because a name and city are given.
The story places repeated unexplained footsteps and moved weapons inside a childhood home, with a frightened sibling and an unresolved ending. No unseen presence is seen, and no one is harmed.
Evidence for and against
- Nightly footsteps rising from basement steps close to the children’s bedrooms.
- A screaming sister and a shotgun laid out with shells at the bottom of the steps.
- A knife drawer pulled out with knives scattered on the floor.
- An unresolved ending, with the family rearranging bedrooms rather than explaining anything.
- No figure or unseen presence is clearly described as seen.
- No threat, injury, or physical contact is reported.
- Part of the story is ordinary and matter-of-fact (parents out to dinner, watching TV).
- The sister’s report of something at the bottom of the steps is described only vaguely.
- 1:18
- 1:29
What the model inferred (not said on air): Creepiness is judged from the content of the story only. Weapons appearing in a child’s home at night, plus rising tension and no resolution, push this above mildly eerie but below lasting horror.
The frame is a familiar haunted-childhood-home sequence of footsteps and moved objects. But the shotgun arranged with shells at the bottom of the basement steps is a distinctive detail.
Evidence for and against
- Unusual detail: a locked-away shotgun found at the foot of the basement steps with shells around it.
- The caller’s framing that every house the family lived in was said to be haunted or the site of a death.
- Basement footsteps, haunted childhood homes, and moved objects are stock ghost-story elements.
- No unusual presence, location, or time frame is described.
- Novelty compared with the rest of the archive cannot be assessed from this single transcript.
- 1:29
What the model inferred (not said on air): I treat the image of the shotgun with shells as the one distinctive element in an otherwise conventional haunted-house sequence.
Scoring confidence 0.65 · analysis confidence 0.70 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller’s firsthand childhood story.; Claimed witnesses (the caller’s sister and father) who do not speak on air.; No physical evidence, documents, or recordings presented.. The originality score blends the model's score (48) 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.
- A household animal could have caused the noises in the kitchen. The caller says they first assumed the cat had knocked something over. · The caller says they heard something in the kitchen and [quote withheld]
- The parents’ stated view was that the children were responsible or imagining it, which would make the moved items an ordinary household event. · The caller reports the parents figured [quote withheld]
- Repeated creaks or mechanical sounds from a basement could be heard as footsteps, especially at night in a house where the children expected something strange. · The caller says the footsteps were heard every night from the basement steps, about ten feet from the bedrooms.
What stands out
The most distinctive reported detail is the shotgun found at the bottom of the basement steps with shells arranged around it, although the caller says it was kept locked away. The story is also framed by the caller’s claim that every house the family lived in was said to have a ghost or a death in it. The host recasts this as a haunting that followed the family.
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