Entity attacks on a child in a late-1800s house in Needles, California
A first-time caller who gives their name as [name withheld] tells Art Bell about what they call an “entity attack” that began when they were about four years old, in a family house in Needles, California. He reports a presence coming through the wall at night, grabbing and dragging them, and family-wide problems with furniture moving. In a final incident, their father was trapped in the basement under a chest freezer. They say the family moved out about two weeks after that, and that they still sleep with their head under the covers.
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 2004.mp3”, starting at 55:35). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
[name withheld], a first-time caller who says he is calling [quote withheld] describes themself as an audio engineer. [name withheld] tells Art Bell they want to share [quote withheld] They also say they have sent in a photograph they took at the old Garces train station in Needles, California. They had been [quote withheld] of his digital-camera images without realizing what they were.
They say the events began when they were about four years old, in a house in Needles that they say was built in the late 1800s and wired in the 1930s, with pull-chain ceiling lights. Their mother insisted they sleep in a small den off the living room, and they say the family “always” had problems with furniture moving around. They report that [quote withheld] came after them, grabbing at them and trying to tug them. One night it got hold of them. They say they got away, jumped on the bed to reach the light’s pull chain, and the next morning their mother found the light on and made the string shorter. On another night they say the thing seized them by the feet and dragged them. They say they pulled the wiring off the ceiling to get the light on, and that they had bruises on his ankles afterward. Asked by Art, they confirm they were four years old at the time.
They say the “final straw” came years later, when their father was locked in the basement. A Sears chest freezer containing half a beef, which they say weighed four or five hundred pounds, ended up over the trap door, and their mother had to get neighbors to pull it off. About two weeks later, they say, their mother woke the children one morning and said “we’re moving today.” They say they have been married twenty-six years, that it bothers their wife, and that they still sleep with their head under the covers. They compare their experience to that of a previous caller whose blanket was pulled off, saying nothing they did to hide stopped it.
Reported events, in order
- 1:18
The caller says they want to share an “entity attack” that happened to them, and they mention a photograph they took at the old Garces train station in Needles, California.
- 1:45
The caller says it began when they were about four years old, in a house in Needles built in the late 1800s and wired in the 1930s, with pull-chain ceiling lights.
- 2:11
The caller says their mother insisted they sleep in a small den off the living room, and that the family had ongoing problems with furniture moving around.
- 2:30
The caller reports a presence that kept coming through the wall after him, grabbing at them and trying to tug them.
- 2:34
One night it got hold of them. They got away and jumped on the bed to reach the light’s pull chain. The next morning their mother found the light on and made the string shorter.
- 2:49
On another night they say it seized them by the feet and dragged them. They pulled the wiring off the ceiling to get the light on, and afterward they had bruises on their ankles.
- 3:03
When asked, they confirm that they were four years old.
- 3:12
The caller says the “final straw” years later was their father being locked in the basement. A Sears chest freezer holding half a beef, weighing four or five hundred pounds, ended up over the trap door, and their mother had neighbors pull it off.
- 3:44
About two weeks later their mother woke the children and said “we’re moving today.”
- 3:51
The caller says they have been married twenty-six years, their wife is bothered by it, and they still sleep with their head under the covers.
- 4:20
The caller says similar things happened to them and that hiding made no difference.
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· 2:30
Something repeatedly came through the wall of the room where they slept and came after them.
- observation· 2:34
The presence grabbed at them and tried to tug them.
- observation· 2:34
One night the presence got hold of them and they broke away.
- observation· 2:49
On another night the presence took hold of their feet and dragged them.
- observation· 3:00
They had bruises on their ankles afterward.
- observation· 2:21
The household repeatedly had problems with furniture moving around.
- observation· 3:26
A chest freezer containing half a beef, weighing four or five hundred pounds, ended up over the basement trap door while their father was down there, and neighbors had to pull it off.
- interpretation· 1:18
The caller calls the whole sequence an “entity attack.”
- observation· 1:33
Photographs they took at the Garces train station contained things they had been editing out of images without realizing what they were.
- host statement· 4:02
Art Bell says that bed covers are “universal protection” against bad things.
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.
Scored as a coherent, detailed firsthand story of events recalled from early childhood, with a complete household sequence and a stated ending. It loses points because the central experiences date from age four, no ordinary explanations are addressed, and the transcript is partly garbled.
Evidence for and against
- A concrete setting is given: [quote withheld] and [quote withheld]
- Physical detail claimed at the time: [quote withheld]
- A specific sequence: the pull chain, pulling wiring off the ceiling, the freezer over the trap door.
- The caller answers the host’s question about their age directly: “four years old.”
- The events are recalled from about age four and from family events “years later,” with no dates given.
- The caller offers no detail that can be tested (no names, no dates, no documents) and does not address ordinary explanations.
- Some passages are garbled or unclear ([quote withheld]).
- Whether the caller saw the freezer incident themself or only heard about it in the family is not clear.
- The speaker labels shift back and forth within the caller’s own account.
- 1:45
- 3:00
- 3:26
What the model inferred (not said on air): The scores by part (closeness to events 18, specific detail 14, consistency 15, other explanations 9, calibration 9) are my editorial judgment. The quoted material is the only transcript content. No cap applies: the story is firsthand, told seriously, and long enough to assess.
The story is the caller’s own word, with specifics that sound checkable (a town, a type of house, a train station), but nothing was checked. The other witnesses are claimed rather than speaking on air, and the photograph they say they sent is not examined in this excerpt.
Evidence for and against
- Specifics that could be checked: [quote withheld] and [quote withheld]
- Several household witnesses are claimed: [quote withheld] their mother finding the light on, and their father in the basement.
- A photograph is said to have been sent: [quote withheld] The host says [quote withheld]
- No witness speaks on air in this segment. The host only says he will look up the photograph.
- The photograph is not described or examined, and it concerns the train station rather than the entity attack.
- No names, dates, records, or documents are given for the events themselves.
- The host’s line “I got a” is cut off, so whether anything was received or reviewed is unresolved.
- 1:24
- 1:40
- 2:21
What the model inferred (not said on air): Placed in the 11 to 25 band for checkable specifics given but not checked, plus claimed witnesses. The hard cap of 50 applies because no outside check was performed (and the score is nowhere near it).
The story centers on a small child alone in a downstairs room being grabbed and dragged at night. It escalates to a man trapped in a basement under a heavy freezer, and it ends with the family fleeing and the caller still sleeping with their head under the covers.
Evidence for and against
- Intrusion into a child’s sleeping space: [quote withheld]
- Physical contact and harm: [quote withheld] [quote withheld] and [quote withheld]
- Escalation and a trapped family member: [quote withheld]
- Something that never went away: [quote withheld]
- No figure, face, or voice is described. The presence is left wholly undefined, which reduces vivid sensory horror.
- The story is told conversationally and includes the ordinary detail of an audio engineer’s interest in the earlier broadcast.
- The freezer detail is told in a compressed, partly garbled way.
- 2:49
- 3:12
- 3:51
What the model inferred (not said on air): This is a judgment about the story as told, as entertainment, not a claim about whether anything happened.
A provisional score based on content only. The published value is computed by comparing the story with the rest of the archive.
Evidence for and against
- Distinctive details rather than stock images: the shortened pull-chain string, pulling wiring off the ceiling, and a chest freezer left over a basement trap door.
- No figure is described at all. The presence is called only “an entity.”
- Familiar elements of the frame: a haunted old house, a child’s bedroom attacks, furniture moving, and a family that moves out.
- The claimed photograph and its strange features are never described, so they cannot add to how distinctive the story is.
- 2:34
- 2:49
What the model inferred (not said on air): The automatic originality score is 55 (a familiar haunting frame with unusually specific household details). The published originality value depends on how rare the motifs are in the archive and on similarity weights, and it is not computed here.
Scoring confidence 0.70 · analysis confidence 0.72 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller’s firsthand story (a spoken memory of events from about age four, plus later family events); Claimed household witnesses (mother, father, neighbors) who do not speak on air; A claimed photograph said to have been sent to the program, not described or examined in this excerpt.
Ordinary explanations to consider
These are possibilities only. None is a finding about what happened.
- Childhood sleep experiences (nightmares, images while falling asleep, a dark unfamiliar den in extreme summer heat) could account for the night-time attacks on a four-year-old. · The attacks are described as happening at night while they were in the bed they were told to sleep in, at age four.
- The ankle bruises could have an ordinary cause, including the caller’s own description of jumping on the bed while frightened. · [quote withheld] and [quote withheld]
- The things that moved (furniture reported moving, the freezer over the trap door) could involve other household members or ordinary shifting. No one is reported to have seen the freezer move. · They say [quote withheld] and describes returning home to find it in place (“we get home”).
What stands out
The story combines a child’s repeated nightly bedroom attacks with an event that affected the whole household: a four-to-five-hundred-pound chest freezer found on top of a basement trap door, which no one in the story is said to have seen move. The caller offers no origin story or identification for the presence. They call it only “an entity.”
Related stories
Matched by shared recurring details, categories, and wording.