Strange But True

I'll try to start at the beginning. As the founder of Central Arkansas Paranormal Society (C.A.P.S.), I'm not a stranger to strange happenings. I even experience things at my home but never as much as what happened on this particular morning in the span of about an hour and a half.

I was the only 'resident' home on the evening/morning that the excess of these things happened. I was not alone though, thank God for witnesses. Micah had stayed over and helped me with some computer stuff and visited. At about 6:00am we quit the technical stuff and listened to some Margaret Cho online to lighten the mood. I had been up for 2 days with no sleep, I was extremely tired, sleepy, and bitchy. So much to do, so little time, that kind of thing. Well, for some reason Margaret wasn't as funny when you can't see her face. We opted to veg out in the living room and finish watching some special features on a movie I had watched earlier.

I sat down in my usual chair, recliner, and went for the remotes. One of them was missing. I did a quick scan on the floor around the chair and table and didn't see it. Oh well, I thought, I was too tired to worry about it. I picked up the universal remote with my left hand and the DVD remote in my right and tried to turn on the TV. It wouldn't work. So I pressed TV and then power.

When the TV started, it had a black screen. We noticed the cable box was off, then it came on. Micah thought I was turning the cable box off and on. I told him no, "look at my hands." I wasn't pressing any buttons on the remotes. We both sat there for a minute looking at the remotes in my hands and the cable box going on and off. I was tired and wasn't thinking clearly but it was then that it occurred to me that the remote I was trying to turn on the TV with, doesn't even work for the cable box, that was the missing remote. When Micah could see that I wasn't pressing any buttons, I suggested that the missing remote must be down in one of the chairs that we (or my dogs) were sitting in. Our movement must be causing the cable box to turn on and off. Right before we got up to look for it, Micah mentioned hearing a ticking sound. I didn't hear it so I blew it off thinking it was probably the ice maker.

By this time, we had forgotten all about watching the special features on the DVD and concentrated on finding the missing remote. We took off all the cushions from the couch and chairs and dug in, lifted up everything to look under. We searched all the central rooms and everything in them. I walked into the kitchen and was looking for it on the counter behind the small appliances, to see if it was possibly placed on the snack bar ledge and got knocked off. I was standing about 3 feet away from the stove when something blue caught my attention. I turned to see what it was and saw that one of the burners was on HIGH. Micah was standing about a foot further away from me and I asked him if he turned on a burner. He replied, "No, why?", as he stretched to look around me. I said, "Because if you didn't, someone or something else did and God only knows how long it's been on. I reached over to turn off the burner and then it hit me. I remembered Micah had mentioned hearing a ticking sound before we got up to look for the remote. I reached out to turn the burner back on, tick, tick, poof. "Was this the ticking sound you heard from the living room?" Micah said, "Yes, I'm pretty sure it is."

We decided to take a break and sat back down. The stereo in the entertainment center turned on. I got up, turned it off and sat back down. We talked for a minute and heard the familiar power up sounds of the stereo bleeping and blipping. I got up and turned it off again. We really didn't think anything of this because, as most of my friends and family know, the stereo does this about once every day or two. We also have a clock sitting above the TV that has a broken pendulum. I never could get it to work, it'll start itself, go for 2 or 3 days at a time, stop for 2 or 3 days and then start up again.

After Jeff, who used to own both the stereo and the clock, had passed, both items have been acting this way. All the while the cable box is still turning on for a minute, off for a minute, on, off, etc... I sat back down in my chair. Again, the stereo comes on and I get up and turn it off 3 more times. At this point, I'm getting frustrated and feel like tearing my hair out. The stereo came back on again. I yelled, "That's it. I've had enough of this." I got up again and turned off the power strip that the stereo, humidifier, and some decorative lights are plugged into. "Ha, now try to turn it on again." I sat back down and it was quiet for a minute with the exception of the cable box going on and off.

This time we both heard a light thump. Okay, I thought, this was not the ice maker or any other discernible sound I've ever heard. We got up to look around and walked up to the dining room table (where the sound had originated) there was a mess on the table from the previous night; pens, paper, ashtrays, glasses, napkins. I was too damned tired to assimilate what was different. Micah said "look", and picked up one of the wicker shades of the chandelier off the table. We looked up to see the chandelier still swinging slowly. I thought, oh hell no, there's no way that shade fell from that height and didn't make any more noise than a light thump. We tested the theory and sure enough, it made quite a few 'loud' sounds falling from that height as it bounced on the table and it was on the bulb so tight you would have to hold the chandelier with one hand to yank the shade off, you can't just lift it off. We tried holding it about 6 inches from the table and dropped it, yep, there was our sound.

About this time, we turn around to have a another seat in the living room and stopped about midway to see the whole entertainment center light up, stereo and all. Micah says, "Um, the stereo is on again." I said, "Yes, it is, here." I handed him my camera as I reached for my audio recorder, "We've already let too much of this pass us by." This was going way beyond what is considered ordinary around here. I told Micah to just start snapping pictures everywhere and anywhere. I grabbed a tape, plugged in the external mic and hit record. I finally turned off the TV so that even the low volume wouldn't get picked up and mistaken for an EVP (electronic voice phenomenon), and challenged whatever was doing these things. I stated into the tape, "If you really want to impress me, do what I ask you to, make the pendulum on the clock swing and cut out all this random stuff."

After turning off the TV, I reached in and turned off the power strip again. All was quiet. I walked around trying to document into the recording what had already happened for worry I would forget something by the time I had a chance to get some sleep and document it. Micah started taking pictures. A few minutes went by and nothing else happened. We thought it was over. Both Micah and I were ready for a smoke so Micah grabbed 2 cigarettes out of my pack and my lighter, leaving the pack on the coffee table. He came back over to where I was standing by the snack bar and lit them, then placed the lighter on the snack bar by the fountain. We talked for a minute as I took a couple of drags off my cigarette and decided this would be a good time to take a bathroom break. I put my cigarette in the ashtray at the end of the snack bar and headed down the hall.

I noticed something dark on the carpet and couldn't see what it was in the dim morning light so I stepped over it thinking one of my dogs had decided to leave me a present. I came out of the bathroom and turned on the hallway light in preparation of picking up the "gift." I discovered it wasn't what I thought it was, it was my lighter, I looked up to where I'd seen Micah put the lighter on the snack bar, it was gone. Purely for confirmation, I asked Micah if he dropped the lighter on the floor in the hall and he said, "No, I put it here." Indicating the snack bar, where I'd seen him put it. I didn't really think he'd dropped it considering I had to step over it on my way to the bathroom. I told Micah, "Well apparently, it's not over yet."

Only moments later the entertainment center lights up again and we hear those familiar bleeking and bleeping sounds. We walked over to it and I bent over to reach in and shut off the power strip. As I stood up, I noticed the missing remote laying on top of the entertainment center, facing the wall, rather than the TV, and in plain sight, right next to the humidifier. I told Micah, this wasn't here when we were looking for the remote, he confirmed. As soon as I turned to look at the time, the clock pendulum was moving again. I said, "Okay, good job, now I'm truly impressed." It was 7:30 am and time for Micah to leave. I was tired as hell but I kept on recording for an EVP until 9:00am. I thought this would be a good enough time to call Chelsea who is also a member of C.A.P.S. and wake her up to see when and if she had to work. I wasn't at all comfortable about trying to sleep in the house alone because of the ability of whatever did all of this to turn on a gas stove burner.

Chelsea said she had to be at work by 10:00am. The only solution I could think of was to pull all the knobs off the stove. I then decided to see if my friend Amber was up, she, so I could tell her everything that happened while it was still fresh in my mind. Amber is also a member of C.A.P.S. and I knew she'd be interested. I told her everything that had happened and then finally got some sleep at about 11:00am. I did get at least 4 EVPs which I did not save but one was a voice telling Micah goodbye as I was seeing him to the door. Nothing showed up in the pics unfortunately.

Summary:
The cable box turned on and off too numerous times to count.
The stereo came on about 5 or 6 times.
The power strip that the stereo, humidifier and a couple of decorative lights are plugged into, came on twice.
The cable remote disappeared.
The cable remote returned 40 minutes later but not in its original spot.
The pendulum on a clock started moving after a request about 30 minutes prior.
A lighter traveled 10 feet from the snack bar to the hallway floor.
A gas burner was turned on high.
A chandelier, wicker lampshade unhooked itself from the bulb and slowly? dropped to the table.
All these things happened in the span of about 90 minutes.