Objects moved or missing
Dark woman from the attic and phantom table-setting in a childhood home
A caller tells Art Bell about a childhood haunting in their family home. The caller says they and their brother were visited at night by a dark female figure they called the doll stall woman, who came down from the attic through a closet. They later heard table-setting sounds and saw white legs in old-fashioned pajamas moving around the dining table. Then a spirit entered their room and grabbed their legs. The caller says this is the first time they have told anyone about it.
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.
A black shape in the bedroom closet after a childhood church prank
A caller who says they are phoning from Austin, Texas, tells Art Bell about a night when they were about seven years old and staying with their Aunt [name withheld] in the country. They woke and saw a pitch-black, nonhuman “thing” sitting in their bedroom closet. They say they could not scream and prayed silently to God in their head. In the morning they found their normally neat toys jumbled in the closet. The caller offers the jumbled toys as the reason they do not accept the experience as a nightmare.
Woman in black, locked doors, and a priest's blessing in a Dodge City rental
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], from Sumner, Washington, describes a house their family moved into in Dodge City, Kansas, about fifteen years earlier. The caller reports flooding, a woman in a black dress seen by their daughter, doors that shut and locked family members in, whispering, a fetal-position stain on the carpet, and footsteps on the stairs. After researching records, the caller and their sister concluded that an elderly former resident was earthbound. A priest blessed the house and fell ill. The caller says they later blessed it themselves and believes the woman went to the light.
Paralysis and a presence lying on the caller in a former mortician’s house
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], in Atlanta, tells Art Bell that they live in what they call a haunted house, previously owned by someone they describe as a mortician. They report moving objects, noises, and mocking voices. They describe going to bed and feeling something creep up the bed and lie on them while they were unable to move or scream. Later they describe a sensation they call an attempt at sexual contact. They say the experience changed their life and that they now stay up at night until sunrise.
Gray-eyed man on a friend’s couch after a Ouija session
A caller from Colorado says a high school friend, with whom they had once used a Ouija board, phoned them at about 3:30 a.m. in December. The friend was crying and standing outside their own house in the snow. The friend said they had come home to a smell of sulfur and found a well-kept man sitting on their couch with entirely gray eyes. The friend had broken their bedroom window to escape. The caller and their mother later entered the wrecked house and had priests bless it.
Laughing woman on the bed and a head that comes off in the caller’s hand
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], from Juneau, Alaska, describes a bedroom experience the caller says happened about twenty years earlier during a difficult divorce, when the caller had been given sleep medication. The caller reports a heavy weight settling on the bed, an inability to turn over, a raspy female laugh, and something that flung itself on top of them. The caller says they grabbed its hair and the head came off in their hand. The caller reports fainting, waking to their dog whimpering, and finding a few strands of hair that were gone the next morning. The caller was left frightened.
Tucson house after a 1977 murder-suicide: Alarm, child voices, cold room
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], of Rochester, New York, describes living in a Tucson, Arizona, house connected to their husband’s first wife. The caller says the woman killed her two children and herself in 1977. [name withheld] reports a burglar alarm sounding at exactly 2 a.m. on nights their husband was away, children’s whispering, moved objects, and a living room that stayed cold in summer. The caller says a responding policeman advised them to leave, and they did. The caller says they later concluded the dead woman had been trying to drive them and their children away from their husband.
A cloud at a mother-in-law's death and ongoing house disturbances
A caller who says they are calling from Santa Rosa tells the host that in 1989, on Thanksgiving Day, their mother-in-law died. The next day, they say, they and their husband watched a large brown mist cloud dissipate on the sidewalk outside. They go on to describe a series of household disturbances: objects moved, a music box starting by itself, and odd smells. They also describe family upheavals involving their husband and their son. They blame all of it on demons. They say the situation is still going on. The host closes by telling them he believes they are in a dangerous situation.
Disturbances in a rented upstairs apartment above an old store
A caller who gives their name as [name withheld], from Portland, Oregon, describes living with their wife and mother in an upstairs apartment above a store they call the Liberal Store, north of a town they pronounce Malala. The caller reports a room that stayed cool in extreme summer heat, their mother being touched and smelling lilac, dishes found dumped in the sink, a dog refusing to enter a bathroom, Bibles found on the floor open to passages about King David, and knocking on the upstairs door and windows. The caller says the family moved out and that their wife and mother still will not enter the store.
Dolls moved overnight in an antique shop in a former Kansas City orphanage
An unnamed caller tells Art Bell that they and their wife bought an old house, restored it, and opened an antique store. Children’s toys and dolls were repeatedly found off their shelves in the morning. The caller reports a child crying at night and a burned doll found behind a knocked-out wall. The activity stopped while the doll was on display and started again after the doll was sold. The caller says they are now trying to buy it back.
Furnished apartment of a deceased tenant and a door held shut
A caller who says only that they are calling from Texas tells Art Bell that at nineteen they rented a furnished apartment. The previous tenant, an elderly woman, had died with nobody to inherit her belongings. The caller reports that cleaning supplies and dirty dishes vanished whenever the phone rang, their cat went berserk, and windows and the front door were found open despite the bolts. Finally, a door would not open against two people until they spoke a phrase they had been using. They say they packed up their cat and left.
88 more stories
- Bloody Mary mirror ritual in seventh grade and a toothbrush impact3 min
- A brush slides off a roof at the time their father's wife dies4 min
- Mobile home on the Barlow Trail: missing objects, faint figures, and a door that flew open5 min
- Flickering lights, a name called, and faint music at a movie theater after a projectionist's death3 min
- A reported ghost dog in an old Bothell, Washington, apartment1 min
- Rocking chair and voices in an 1880s Ashland rental house5 min
- A painting of an 18th-century lady, called Henrietta, that moves and cracks1 min
- A child's voice and figure in a Las Vegas family home4 min
- Light bulb found behind a radiator after a lightning strike2 min
- Teenager reports a boy on their bed and a rusted pistol in a Midvale, Idaho, farmhouse4 min
- Strangling dream and a hag mask found at the basement stairs3 min
- Ouija board session in a box canyon and a spirit speaking through a participant4 min
- Annual funeral reported in the living room of a former funeral home1 min
- Letter: Anvil moves in basement after teenagers’ pentagram ritual1 min
- An 1880 house with chairs moving, a door opening, and rose and tobacco scents3 min
- Blue streak through a closed window and a light bulb behind a radiator4 min
- Previous owner’s presence, baked smell and rearranged dishes in an estate-sale house4 min
- Footsteps from the basement, a shotgun and knives moved in a childhood home4 min
- Duplex poltergeist, a figure at the wall, and a hidden room of the former police chief4 min
- Caller senses their late father, phone problems, photo found in hallway6 min
- Letter: Discarded stuffed Ewok and scratching sounds from a bedroom closet1 min
- A small limping figure, a 1932 diary, and a drowned boy identified6 min
- A wedding ring removed before death and a ring found in a dead aunt's hands4 min
- Fax: Root beer carried down stairs by itself at a 40-day memorial gathering1 min
- Moved tables and wheelchairs in an American Legion hall in Bremerton3 min
- A child sees a man in a recliner, and the recliner's footrest moves by itself3 min
- Ghost called Charlie reported to follow a family through moves4 min
- Voice in the kitchen, a loosened bulb, and a face in a burnt furnace3 min
- Tugging during naps and a waterbed that seemed to leak in a San Rafael apartment3 min
- Missing items and a refilled coffee cup in a former funeral home in Providence3 min
- Rummaging sounds and a hair pull in USS Enterprise switchgear rooms6 min
- A San Antonio railroad crossing where cars are reportedly pushed off the tracks2 min
- Knocking, pulled covers, and a figure in 1920s dress on a hotel's fifth floor3 min
- Father hears lamp pull-chains jingle and a moan in his ear, 19614 min
- Nightly 12:26 wakings, cool fingers, and a child’s invisible playmate5 min
- Ouija board session with an 89-year-old landlady2 min
- 1840 Underground Railroad house: a ball slides to a child and a door latch moves5 min
- Letter: A smoky kneeling figure at a student’s bedside and a presence across the hall2 min
- A floating translucent man and a flying shed roof at a Fig Springs, Arizona, trailer5 min
- Child’s night visitor “[name withheld]” matched to a gravestone and a photograph5 min
- Cigar smoke, a cement mixer, and moved chairs in a grandfather’s house4 min
- Light switches moving by themselves and an exercise bike pedaling in a basement4 min
- Attic noises and a presence in a family’s Victorian house4 min
- Disappearing objects and a front door that opened by itself in an old house6 min
- An oval clock found across the room in a Chicago apartment4 min
- A sliding couch and a giant hand reported in a childhood home in Oregon4 min
- Two figures seen through sheer curtains at an old roadhouse near Prescott, Arizona3 min
- Séance in a Knoxville apartment and a swollen window that fell5 min
- Spirit called Henry: pinches, a boy’s ghost, and a fallen picture3 min
- Letter: A girl named [name withheld] in a Trenton attic and a found ring3 min
- Percolator parts found reassembled on a windowsill3 min
- Banging, moved objects, and a statue’s eyes at an abandoned courthouse10 min
- Nightly object movement and a brother’s singed hair in a modern home4 min
- Twin's grandfather reportedly announces brother alive and trapped in Vietnam6 min
- Ouija board spells “Clock” and a Panama-shaped clock turns in Gamboa3 min
- Fireplace doors, an orb, and moaning in a Branson-area bed and breakfast4 min
- Pitchfork reportedly pushes open a closet door in an abandoned house2 min
- Figure on all fours between twin beds and ski poles strewn in a Billings basement2 min
- Moving curtains and deceased relatives appearing in dreams2 min
- Papers swirl after a caller mocks a house ghost named [name withheld]2 min
- Broken sink handle and a matching handle found in a Hawaii hallway1 min
- Painting of a chained figure and disturbances in an 1800s San Francisco house3 min
- Archaeology crew's equipment failures and scattered camp at a burial site3 min
- Doll moves its arm; a dark figure at the mother's bedside5 min
- Door held shut by something with dog-like feet; Cracker Jacks toy taken1 min
- Noose reported suspended from nothing in a rented former church rectory2 min
- Bright light, chimes, and a floating paper in their late uncle’s handwriting3 min
- Callback: A dead uncle’s footsteps and a father seen in a shared dream2 min
- A nine-drawer dresser blocking a bedroom door in an Eldridge, Iowa, house6 min
- Tall shadow figure in a bowler hat gliding through a grandmother’s basement4 min
- Haunted house bought in Ohio: closet racket, knocks on a bedroom door, a bouncing cat cage, and growling6 min
- A radio station at 666 Main Street, Deadwood, and a ghost called Doc Smiley4 min
- Weights restacked in a lighthouse exercise room5 min