A nine-drawer dresser blocking a bedroom door in an Eldridge, Iowa, house
A caller the host introduces as [name withheld] says they bought a house in Eldridge, Iowa, around 1982. While moving in, they and their son carried a nine-drawer dresser into a bedroom. They say it then moved in front of the door while no one was inside. The caller and their wife changed the room from their daughter’s bedroom to a poker room, and they say their dog would never enter it. They end with a 2005 return visit, when a realtor told them the house had sold seven times since they owned it and said the realtor did not want to hear the caller’s story.
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 2013.mp3”, starting at 16:50). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
The host introduces the caller as [name withheld], [quote withheld] and the caller greets Art with “Mega Roswell.” The caller says they bought a house in Eldridge, Iowa, and lived in it only fourteen months. They worked for a Caterpillar plant that closed, which led to their move west. While moving in, they say, they and their 15-year-old son carried a nine-drawer dresser into the room meant for their daughter’s bedroom. They say they then went to the kitchen for coffee. When they came back, they could not open the room’s door, and the dresser had slid in front of it. They say they first thought their son was inside and shouted through the door for it to be opened. Then the son came in through the front door carrying another box, so, they say, no one was in the room. Asked by the host whether anyone was in the room, the caller answers no. They say they pried the door open and slid the dresser aside to get back into an empty room. They say they and their wife sat down with coffee and decided the room would not be their daughter’s bedroom. She said it would be the caller’s poker room. They moved the dresser and their daughter into another room and put only a poker table and stereo in the poker room. Asked by the host how their poker went afterward, they say [quote withheld] The caller also says their dog would never go into that room. The previous owner, whom they knew from work, had never mentioned anything about the house. They say they later moved back to Iowa because their father had Alzheimer’s. Driving down the street, they saw an open house at the same property. They went in with their girlfriend and talked to the realtor. They wanted to check a cheap under-the-counter kitchen light they had installed when they bought the place, and they say it was still there. They say the realtor told them the house had sold seven times since they owned it and that nobody ever stayed very long. When they began to tell the realtor what they had experienced, they say, the realtor said they didn’t want to hear any more. They give the dates as buying in “82,” leaving in “83,” and moving back in 2005.
Reported events, in order
- 0:25
The caller says they bought a house in Eldridge, Iowa, and lived in it only fourteen months.
- 0:40
While moving in, they say, they and their 15-year-old son carried a nine-drawer dresser into the room meant for their daughter’s bedroom.
- 0:53
They say they went to the kitchen for coffee. When they came back, they could not open the room’s door, and the dresser had slid in front of it.
- 1:12
They say they first thought their son was inside the room. Asked by the host, they say no one was in the room.
- 1:32
They say they shouted through the door to open it. Then their son came in from the front door with another box of things.
- 1:47
They say they pried the door open and slid the dresser out of the way to get back into an empty room.
- 2:27
They say their dog would never go into that room.
- 2:32
They say they and their wife talked it over and decided the room would be the caller’s poker room instead of their daughter’s bedroom. They moved the dresser and their daughter to another room and put a poker table and stereo in it.
- 2:55
Asked how their poker went there afterward, they say [quote withheld]
- 3:28
They say they later returned to Iowa because of their father’s Alzheimer’s and saw an open house at the same property. They went in with their girlfriend.
- 3:50
They say the cheap under-the-counter kitchen light they had installed was still there.
- 3:56
They say the realtor told them the house had sold seven times since they owned it and that nobody ever stayed very long.
- 4:09
They say that when they told the realtor about their experience, the realtor said they didn’t want to hear any more.
- 4:37
They say they bought the house in “82,” left in “83” when the plant closed, and moved back in 2005.
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· 1:06
The nine-drawer dresser the caller and their son had just placed in the bedroom had moved in front of the door.
- observation· 1:16
No one was in the room when the caller found the door blocked.
- observation· 1:47
The caller could not open the door and had to pry it open and slide the dresser out of the way.
- interpretation· 1:24
The caller first thought their son was in the room doing something.
- observation· 2:27
Their dog would never go into that room.
- hearsay· 3:56
The realtor told the caller the house had sold seven times since the caller owned it and that nobody ever stayed very long in it. The caller does not know whether anyone else had trouble.
- hearsay· 2:14
The previous owner, whom the caller knew from work, had never said anything about the house.
- host statement· 1:54
The host says the event is physically impossible.
- host statement· 5:05
The host describes it as [quote withheld]
- host statement· 5:42
The host concludes that something not understood moved the dresser, since the son was outside.
- host statement· 5:52
The host reads the empty poker room as the household’s response to a “not this room” message. The caller does not say this themselves.
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 firsthand story of a single event (source proximity 20/25). It has concrete specifics that could in principle be checked: a named town, an approximate year, a nine-drawer dresser, a son’s age, and a realtor’s statement (specificity 14/20). The sequence holds together and answers the host’s questions without contradiction (internal consistency 16/20). The caller does not address ordinary explanations, and one of them (a person in the house, or the dresser shifting on its own) fits the gaps in their story (alternative explanations 7/20). The caller separates what they thought from what they found and says they do not know whether others had trouble (calibration 10/15).
Evidence for and against
- Firsthand: the caller describes finding the blocked door themselves, [quote withheld]
- Concrete specifics: [quote withheld] [quote withheld]
- The caller answers the host’s challenge directly: [quote withheld] [quote withheld]
- The caller is careful about what they knew: [quote withheld] and [quote withheld]
- No second witness is said to have seen the dresser against the door. The son arrived from outside.
- The caller does not describe the floor, the dresser’s fittings, or the room’s layout, so simple physical explanations go untested.
- The supporting details about the house (seven sales) are secondhand from the realtor.
- Who is speaking is uncertain in one early stretch of the call.
- The employer name is garbled (“a Caterpillar” and “CAF”).
- The caller is unsure of the year: [quote withheld]
- 1:06
- 1:16
- 4:37
What the model inferred (not said on air): The weights for each part are my judgment, based on the transcript alone. I did not use vocal delivery, tone, or the host’s praise. The main reason the score is not higher is that the caller never explains how a heavy dresser could end up against a door from the inside. No independent witness of that moment speaks.
Nothing in this part of the broadcast is verified on air. The caller gives specifics that could in principle be checked, including a town, an approximate year, and a realtor’s statement about seven sales. The caller says a second household member helped carry the dresser. But no document, photograph, or on-air witness is produced.
Evidence for and against
- [quote withheld] and [quote withheld] are specific in principle.
- [quote withheld] is a claim about a third party’s statement.
- No physical evidence is claimed to exist, let alone examined.
- The son and wife do not speak on air. The realtor is reported, not recorded.
- The property is not identified beyond the town. No address or street is given.
- It is unclear whether the realtor’s figure of seven sales covers the same period or the same house as the caller understood.
- 0:25
- 3:56
What the model inferred (not said on air): A score of 11 to 25 ([quote withheld]) fits better than 0 to 10 because named specifics and a claimed statement from a third party are present. It stays at the bottom of that range because none of it is documentary and none of it is examined.
No presence, threat, or harm is described, and the encounter is a single physical move. What raises it above a harmless anecdote is the sealed room, the change of a child’s bedroom away from it, and the dog refusing to enter.
Evidence for and against
- The room meant for a child is given up as a bedroom: [quote withheld]
- [quote withheld]
- The story ends unresolved, including a realtor who [quote withheld]
- No figure, sound, smell, touch, or sense of a presence is reported.
- The host’s laughter and framing are not treated as part of the story.
- The one reported event is brief and over within minutes.
- The caller does not describe what the room felt or looked like afterward.
- 2:27
- 2:57
What the model inferred (not said on air): I set this in the “mildly eerie” range: an intrusion into a household, but with no malice, escalation, or physical contact reported.
The setup, an object moving in a newly occupied house, is a familiar poltergeist motif. What stands out is that a heavy nine-drawer dresser is found sealing a bedroom door from the inside, and the household responds by giving the room over to a poker table.
Evidence for and against
- [quote withheld] with the room reportedly empty.
- The household’s response, [quote withheld] is an unusual ending.
- Stories of moved objects are a stock category in this archive.
- There are no strange events beyond the single move.
- The published originality score compared with the rest of the archive is provisional at this archive size.
- 1:06
- 2:38
What the model inferred (not said on air): A provisional model score of 58 is treated as the published value, because the comparison with the rest of the archive carries little weight at this size.
Scoring confidence 0.65 · analysis confidence 0.75 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller’s own firsthand story (live telephone call); A statement from a realtor, reported by the caller and not verified; Household members (son, wife) mentioned but not speaking on air. The originality score blends the model's score (58) 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 person in the house moved the dresser, either the son or another household member, and the caller checked the room too late to catch them. · The caller says they first assumed their son was in the room ([quote withheld]), and the son was in and out of the house carrying boxes. The caller’s claim that the room was empty rests on their own entry after the fact.
- The dresser slid forward on its own toward the door. An open drawer shifting its weight, an uneven or sloped floor, casters, or a slick floor could each explain it. · The caller gives no information on how the dresser sat, whether the floor was level, whether it had wheels, or whether drawers were open. The only detail is that a heavy “nine-drawer dresser” ended up against the door.
- The dog’s avoidance of the room and the later turnover of owners come from ordinary features of the property or household, such as smells, drafts, noise, or a room used only for storage. They do not come from anything the caller linked to the event. · The dog claim comes with no detail beyond [quote withheld] The seven sales are reported secondhand from the realtor, with no stated reason.
What stands out
The reported event is not a sighting or a sound. It is a single claimed move of a heavy, specific object, a nine-drawer dresser, into a doorway, sealing a room that was to be a child’s bedroom. The caller never offers a cause. A second unusual element is that the caller treats it as a settled household fact. The caller turns the room into a poker room and notes only that their poker went badly there.
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