Whistling, flying knives and a figure in a TV reflection in an 1860s Stillwater house
[name withheld], calling on Skype from Stillwater, Minnesota, hands the phone to his wife [name withheld]. She says they moved two years ago in April into a house in historic Stillwater built in the 1860s, and strange events have grown worse since. She reports muffled whistling and music like an old record. She reports the sound of a glass being set down and a knock from inside the front door when the house was empty. She says kitchen knives flew off the table and stuck point-down in the floor inches from her husband. She also says she saw a full-bodied male figure walking toward her in the reflection of the switched-off television. She says they are still in the house and are looking at other houses, and that the spirit cuts off their phone calls when they discuss it.
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 1:25:22). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
Art introduces [name withheld] on Skype. [name withheld] says he is [quote withheld] and that his wife had sent part of the story to the show. He then hands the phone to his wife, [name withheld]. [name withheld] says they live in a house in “historic Stillwater, Minnesota,” built in the 1860s, and moved in [quote withheld] She says it began with muffled whistling, which she insists was not wind or pipes. She would also hear something like old record music playing. She went outside to look for a kid blasting a car stereo and saw nobody, so it came only from the house. She reports that things grew worse. She heard sounds like a glass being set down on a table while no one was home. Standing out front with no one inside, she heard a knock from inside the front door, and she was afraid to go back in. She says kitchen knives then flew off the kitchen table and, rather than falling flat, went point-down and stuck into the hardwood floor inches from her husband several times. She says he was lucky to jump clear. This is where she says she began thinking about moving, and they have been asking real estate agents and friends about another house. She describes sitting on the couch, staring into the reflection of the switched-off TV, and seeing a full-bodied man walking toward her in that reflection. She screamed and jumped up, her husband asked what was wrong, and it disappeared. Asked whether they moved, she says they are still in the house and that “the spirit here” usually cuts off their cell-phone conversations, and the home landline, when they talk about it. Art remarks that the spirit apparently decided not to interfere with Skype. [name withheld] says she had told her husband she hoped it would not cut off the Skype call. The recording goes on past this point in lines marked as outside the story (the backyard, a dug-up deck, and a dog).
Reported events, in order
- 0:52
[name withheld] says they live in a house in historic Stillwater, Minnesota, built in the 1860s, and moved in two years ago in April.
- 1:10
The activity began with muffled whistling, which she says was not wind or pipes.
- 1:21
There was whistling of a tune, then sounds like old record music. She checked outside for a car stereo and saw nobody, and she concluded it came from the house.
- 1:41
The activity grew worse: sounds like a glass being set on a table while no one was home.
- 1:57
Standing out front with no one inside, she heard a knock from inside the front door and was afraid to go back in.
- 2:12
Kitchen knives began flying off the kitchen table.
- 2:26
She says the knives landed point-down, stuck in the hardwood floor inches from her husband, several times. He jumped out of the way.
- 2:38
She says this is where she began thinking about moving, and they have been talking to real estate agents and friends about another house.
- 3:16
Sitting on the couch, she saw in the reflection of the switched-off TV a full-bodied figure, a man, walking toward her. She screamed and jumped up, her husband asked what was wrong, and it disappeared.
- 3:46
She says they are still living in the house, and that the spirit usually cuts off cell-phone calls, and also the home landline, when they talk about it.
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· 1:10
Muffled whistling, which the caller says was not wind or pipes, was heard in the house beginning shortly after they moved in.
- observation· 1:21
Whistling of a tune was followed at times by what sounded like old record music. The caller says she went outside to check for a car stereo and saw nobody.
- observation· 1:41
A sound like a glass being set down on a table when no one was at home.
- observation· 1:57
A knock heard from the inside of the front door while she stood outside and believed the house was empty.
- observation· 2:12
Kitchen knives flying off the kitchen table.
- observation· 2:26
Knives landing point-down, stuck in the hardwood floor inches from her husband, several times.
- observation· 3:29
A full-bodied male figure seen walking toward her in the reflection of the switched-off TV. She screamed, jumped up, her husband asked what was wrong, and it disappeared.
- observation· 3:54
Cell-phone calls dropping when the caller or her family talk about the ghost while in the house.
- interpretation· 3:49
The caller credits the ongoing activity, including the dropped calls, to a spirit in the house.
- host statement· 4:08
The host jokes that the spirit chose not to interfere with the Skype connection.
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 clear, mostly coherent firsthand story with some concrete detail about the setting and a couple of explicit checks against ordinary causes. But no one backs it up, the individual events are not dated, and it includes one extreme physical claim and one guess about phone signals. It sits near the [quote withheld] anchor.
Evidence for and against
- Firsthand throughout: she is the person who heard the whistling, checked outside, and saw the figure ([quote withheld]).
- She reports checking ordinary causes: [quote withheld] and going outside to look for a car stereo and finding “nobody in sight.”
- The events escalate in a coherent order, from sounds to moving objects to a visible figure, with consistent answers to Art’s questions ([quote withheld]).
- Concrete details of the setting: historic Stillwater, Minnesota, a house built in the 1860s, moved in two years ago in April, hardwood floors, a kitchen table.
- The extraordinary knife claim (point-down embedding inches from a person) is asserted without any physical evidence or independent check ([quote withheld]).
- The claim that the spirit drops phone signals when discussed is a guess tied to a common everyday fault ([quote withheld]).
- No dates, times of day, street address, or other specifics that could be checked are given for the individual events.
- The claimed second witness, her husband, is on the line but never describes any event himself.
- The labels showing who is speaking are unreliable (many of [name withheld]’s lines are labeled as the host), so it is not possible to be fully certain which sentences are hers.
- The story may continue past the marked end (backyard material later in the broadcast), so the story assessed may be incomplete.
- Several passages are garbled ([quote withheld]), and the meaning of [quote withheld] is unclear.
- 2:26
- 1:10
- 3:46
What the model inferred (not said on air): The weighting of the parts (strong source proximity, moderate specificity and consistency, weak fit for ordinary explanations of the knife claim, moderate calibration) is my judgment. The transcript itself supplies only the quoted content.
The only support is the caller’s own word plus a claimed but silent witness and some details about the place that were never verified. That places it in the low range for evidence that can be checked.
Evidence for and against
- Specifics that could in principle be checked are stated: a house in [quote withheld] and a move-in date of [quote withheld]
- A second person is claimed to have been present and put in danger ([quote withheld]).
- No photograph, video, audio recording, document, or physical trace is offered or examined on air.
- The claimed second witness does not speak about the events on air. He is on the line only as the caller who hands over the phone.
- Nothing in the story was checked externally. No outside check was performed.
- Whether any physical mark was left in the floor is not stated or shown.
- The problems with who is speaking make it unclear at points who is asserting what.
- 0:52
- 2:26
What the model inferred (not said on air): The placement follows the scoring guide: assertion only, with unverified specifics and a claimed witness, well below the range for physical evidence.
The story combines a direct physical threat (thrown knives landing near a person) with a figure advancing on the caller inside her home, and it ends unresolved with the family still in place. That places it above the “genuinely unsettling” anchor.
Evidence for and against
- A weapon is said to have been thrown and to have stuck point-down in the floor inches from a person: [quote withheld]
- A full-bodied figure is reported walking directly at the caller in her own living room: [quote withheld]
- Sustained escalation over roughly two years and an openly unresolved situation in the family home: [quote withheld]
- Intrusion into ordinary home space: the kitchen, the couch, phone calls.
- Much of the early activity is sound only and harmless, almost domestic (a glass set down, a knock).
- The caller stays matter-of-fact about still living there ([quote withheld]).
- The sighting is brief and ends immediately when she reacts (“then it disappeared”).
- There is no description of the figure’s intent or expression beyond its walking toward her.
- It is not stated whether the knives came repeatedly over time or in a single night. The line [quote withheld] is unclear.
- 2:26
- 3:29
What the model inferred (not said on air): Creepiness is an editorial judgment about the story as heard, not a judgment about whether the events are true or about the caller.
The story uses a familiar haunted-house setup with standard sound motifs. What sets it apart is the point-down knife embedding and the sighting in a television reflection. These raise it above a purely stock story, but not far.
Evidence for and against
- The specific detail of kitchen knives landing point-down and sticking into a hardwood floor, repeatedly, inches from a person ([quote withheld]).
- The figure is seen not directly but in the reflection of a switched-off television screen.
- Whistling, knocks, music, and moving objects are all stock haunted-house motifs.
- A figure appearing in a reflecting surface is a familiar ghost-story device.
- Escalation in a rented or newly occupied old house is a very common setup.
- How new the story is compared with the rest of the archive cannot be computed from a single transcript. The figure is provisional.
- 2:26
- 3:15
What the model inferred (not said on air): This is the provisional model-based originality estimate. The published value would blend it with the comparison against the rest of the archive, which cannot be computed here.
Scoring confidence 0.45 · analysis confidence 0.55 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: Firsthand spoken testimony from [name withheld], who describes hearing, seeing, and living with the reported events.; A claimed second witness (her husband [name withheld]) who is on the line but does not himself describe any of the events on air.; No photograph, recording, document, or physical trace offered. The claim that knives were stuck in the hardwood floor is asserted, not shown.; Details about the place are given (historic Stillwater, Minnesota; a house built in the 1860s; moved in [quote withheld]) but nothing was checked.. The originality score blends the model's score (52) 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.
- Ordinary house and neighborhood noise in an old building. · Whistling, a sound like recorded music, a glass being set down, and a knock inside the house could be plumbing, heating, settling, or a neighbor’s audio. The caller says she checked for wind, pipes, and an outside car stereo and saw nobody ([quote withheld]; “nobody in sight”).
- A reflection of a living person or object in the dark TV screen, or seeing a figure in a faint reflection. · The figure was seen only as a reflection in an unlit television screen, in a room where she was [quote withheld] A dim reflective surface gives little to go on.
- Ordinary poor cell phone and landline coverage or equipment faults. · The caller reports dropped calls on both cell phones and the landline while discussing the topic ([quote withheld]).
What stands out
The knives are said not just to fall but to land point-down and stick in the hardwood floor inches from a person, again and again. The place of the sighting is also unusual: the figure is seen only in the reflection of a switched-off television screen, not directly.
Related stories
Matched by shared recurring details, categories, and wording.