I told them that I needed help with some of the items, and soon two of them accompanied me back to the basement. I didn’t give them any reason to think why I needed two men, but I could see their curiosity, I could also tell that they were eager to view a restricted area of the museum that was off limits to the public.
The first thing I did was to return the lariat to its case, and pick out another item to take its place. I asked one of the men to switch off the lights and turn off the radio, following this we all rode the elevator back up to the upper floor.
The following week I described my basement experience to a co-worker. I was very surprised when she opened up, and began to describe her own experience that took place one morning, just two months before mine. She said that on the floor where the antique toys are displayed, she had seen one of the dolls actually move! I asked her what did she mean, it moved? She explained that one of the dolls had moved on its own, as if pushed off of a display. This doll display is located behind a large locked glass case.
She was a bit shaken to have witnessed this because it caught her completely off guard. She had been standing just a few feet away from the large display case, and the doll’s slow movement caught her attention. This happened slowly at first, then quickly just as if an unseen hand had pushed the doll off the shelf and on to the bottom of the case! After thinking in a more rational manner, she theorized that there must have been a subtle movement in the building that had caused the doll to drop off the display. She decided to leave the floor, and locate the key that opened the case, in order to replace the doll to its original spot.
Returning to the case with the key, she immediately noticed that three of the dolls, including the one that had initially fallen, were off their displays and weirdly arranged in a strange circle! Holding the only key to the case in her hand, she could not imagine how this could have taken place without someone opening the case with the key, and quickly completing such a prank.
She told me that knowing there was no one else in the building at that early hour really caused the hairs on her neck to stand on end. Even as she was telling me her story, she began to rub her arms to still the goosebumps that I could see had visibly formed on both her arms.
Continuing with her story, she opened the case and once and for all, rearranged the dolls onto their bases on the shelf, locked the case and quickly made her way back to her office. That was the end of that. She did not mention this incident to anyone, and since I was the first person who had ever shared a somewhat similar ghost experience with her, she had decided to trust me with her own personal experience. I told her that both our experiences must not be isolated ones. There must be others who have had some ghostly experiences of their own in this large building, but due to whatever personal reasons they have had, they’ve chosen not to come forward.
She did tell me that similar to my own experience, another co-worker told her of his encounter with a dark figure on the fourth floor. He said that he witnessed a shadowy figure of a man quickly walking down the hall, and before he could yell at him to stop, the ghost man had just faded away! This took place in the early evening when no one else was around. This co-worker has chosen to never be alone on the fourth floor again without someone accompanying him.
Well, these are some of the experiences that I, and others have had, and were told to me years ago when I worked in the building. I’m quite sure that there must be many others who have had their own fair share of encounters. Whether they will come forward to say anything is up to them. But now you are aware of all of what I know. I am by no means a skeptic any longer. I believe, yes I do believe, that there are ghosts. That building sure has its share.”
Paul R. Green’s Story
I interviewed Paul at his sister’s home in Denver. She mentioned that her brother was on his way to her home from his home in Colorado Springs, and that his story was a fascinating one. Paul, and his partner’s, haunting experiences might be the best account of a ghost I’d ever heard. With an obvious smile on my face, I assured her that after we finished up with the interview, I would decide if his story would be one that I’d consider including in this book. As it so happened, Paul’s story is one of those, which in my estimation is quite fascinating, and gives a potential home buyer good reason to think seriously, about investing in any property which might cause one to feel the least bit uneasy.
— Antonio
“Originally I’m from Denver. I was born there and after graduating from college was hired as a school teacher, and worked at my profession for just four years. I retired from the school system for health reasons. One day a student with whom I had a disagreement with, decided he would take revenge for my recommendation to expel him. He dropped a chair on me as I was walking down a flight of stairs. My doctor later informed me that I might have been easily killed by that falling chair. The injuries I sustained were to my upper spine, and one neck bone that was fractured when I fell and fell down the stairs. Because the student was a minor, not much in the way of punishment was handed to him, at least not to my satisfaction. So now, today I’m forcibly retired and making the best of a situation that could have been quite a lot worst.
Two years after the incident, and after completing the mandatory rehabilitation program, my partner Rodney and I decided to move to Colorado Springs, purchase a house and invest in our future by purchasing two other houses that needed upgrading. These two investment properties would need improvements to bring them up to a level where we could rent them, but with a little hard work and of course money, we were confident we accomplish this.
At the time, real estate was a good investment, refurbishing properties having been neglected, and putting them back on the market was proving to be a very good way to go. Before I met Rodney, he had experience doing this to one house and then another until he had amassed a nice personal, little financial nest egg. When I came into the picture, as a couple, we decided to pull our resources together and jointly work towards some sense of financial freedom. Anyone who has ever been a teacher knows, the time and emotional work that is involved in our profession is rarely reflected in our pay-checks. The unexpected accident that was thrust upon me, put a strain on us, and delayed our future plans, but we got back on track nonetheless.
So, as for my story, I’ll begin by telling you that I was never so scared as when I experienced spirits at one of our properties. I never, ever thought that I would have such an encounter, I didn’t even believe in such things as ghosts, but I certainly do now.
The property where this took place was on the east side of town, on a street off of Palmer Park Boulevard. Before Rodney and I purchased this house, I was very hesitant to even consider it because of the terrible state it was in. It definitely needed so much work to bring it back to a somewhat livable condition that I thought, no way was I going to be a part of this money pit. But Rodney convinced me in the end, and in a few days I signed the real estate contract and soon I was its somewhat proud owner.
We decided to do most of the demolition work ourselves, which meant removing trash, a non-load bearing wall, cabinets, doors and a few windows. For all the major construction, we hired a licensed contractor. I remember the first morning that I entered the house, I was by myself because Rodney was away at the time, working at his office.
As I entered the house, the first thing that struck me was its putrid scent. The odor of what seemed to resemble rotting wood and moldy carpets, hung heavy in the air. I also felt that there was an overall eeriness to the house. It was a weightiness that pushed on me from all sides. I immediately had the unreasonable thought that a serious illness was about to come on. I knew this was absurd, but that is what I was feeling. It was an irrational, and very weird, negative feeling.
I immediately opened wide the front door and went about the house opening all the windows. When I walked toward one of the bedroom windows, I noticed that there was a person’s shadowy outline on the curtain, standing outside, in the back yard. I took hold of the window’s frame and pulled the shear curtains aside, and the figure was gone! I opened the window and looked all around the small yard, but he was gone! Strangely,