This story a part of the True Ghost Stories page on Obiwan's UFO-Free Paranormal Page. Please do not copy or distribute without permission from Obiwan and/or the original author!
Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 17:50:58 -0700 (PDT)
To: guestbook@ghosts.org
email Storey@aol.com
The Kleptomaniac Ghost
When I was 14 years old, I was living in the heart of the San Fernando Valley with my parents and my younger other, 13 years old. We lived in a typical, 3 bedroom tract home in the picture of suburbia. My parents decided to put the house up for sale and move to a bigger house and that's when all Hell broke loose. There is a spare room attached to the garage that used to be painted all these psychedelic colors and bizarre symbols that we covered up with white paint. Soon after the house was listed on the market, we had some rain and my father noticed the ceiling in this shed was sagging from water damage, exposing the wooden beams underneath so he tore it down. Strangely enough, lodged among the beams, we discovered a pair of binoculars, some commerative coins from an Apollo Space Mission, and a cheap watch. Nothing of any particular value, except perhaps sentimental. But all of us felt a collective chill go down our spines as we wondered who these items belonged to, how they m! ! anaged to get above the ceiling and why anyone thought they were worth hiding.
Soon after, my mom received her monthly bank statement in the mail and noticed a couple of checks that were not written by her but someone had signed her name. Puzzled, she picked us up from school and asked us about in on the way home but neither of us would ever forge a check so she went to retrieve the check to show us, but both of them were missing from the stack. Pretty soon, all of our personal items began to disappear and reappear in the oddest places. At first we thought someone was playing a practical joke or that one of us was responsible and the accusations began to fly. But some of the events that took place were so mindboggling we became sure that no person could be responsible.
One anecdote: My mom and I came home after grocery shopping and as we were unpacking the groceries we discovered that a whole bunch of non-food items had disappeared, even though we specifically saw the checker bag them. By this time we were used to this and figured that these things would reappear in the middle of the night in the oven or under the bed. My parents then went out to run errands for a couple of hours and I settled myself to a long gab with my girlfriend. As I chatted, I idly opened and closed one of my desk drawers. It was completely empty but when I closed it and opened it a second time, I saw a bottle of shampoo lying inside - the same bottle of shampoo that was missing from our groceries! I told my girlfriend what was going on and closed the drawer after removing the shampoo. Bracing myself, I opened it again and this time there was a tube of toothpaste! Astounded, I tore out the other two drawers and peered below the drawer, looking for any explanation of th! ! is phenomenon. Even stranger, my top drawer is a lockable drawer so once it's closed, it's completely inaccessible from behind the desk or below. Wanting a witness to verify that I wasn't hallucinating, I called my brother in and without explaining anything, I showed him the empty drawer and closed it. I opened it and inside rested a six-pack of Ivory soap. He freaked out and ran screaming out of the room.
At this point I was too excited to be frightened so I continued to open and close the drawer and sure enough, each time, a new item appeared, sometimes two. I even requested some specific items, like my nail polish or hair gel to materialize and it did! After every single missing item was retrieved, I stared at them all lining up my desk in excited wonder, and then the weirdness of what just happened hit me. I began to wonder, if this thing, ghost or whatever it is can dematerialize and teletransport these items, there's no telling what else or who else it could do the same to next. Gathering up my hard won toiletries, I joined my terrified brother on the front doorstep and waited for my parents to arrive. My girlfriend came running down the street to keep me company as well. This is just one of the many bizarre, implausible yet true events that my family and I came to live with for the next 5 years. Certain things like cash were always missing no matter how closely you kept i! ! t against your body or how carefully you hid it. Important documents, term papers, school books always managed to disappear when you needed them most. This ghost was clearly prescient and knew what was most important to you and most inconvenient to steal.
No matter how many times we moved, this presence made our lives miserable but with each passing year as my brother and I got older, the activity slowed down. By the time I left for college, there were only two incidents I can recall and now that I am married and 27 years old, nobody in my family has been affected. I could fill a book with all of the things that happened but if anybody out there can offer an explanation for a kleptomaniac ghost or has had similar experiences, I'd love to hear from you. Oh yeah, I've never heard or seen any physical manifestations other than things disappearing when I was looking the other way.