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Posted: 11-04-2013 13:03 Post subject: CCTV ghost

The friend's daughter works at a local co-op and they have sadly had a lot of robberies which took place as the stores were closing up. As a result, they have adopted a policy whereby when they have shut the shop up and the staff are ready to leave, they check the car park using their CCTV. If there is anyone in the car park who they don't recognise, they will call the police. So the other night, they spotted a young male on the CCTV, wearing a hooded jumper so his face couldn't be seen. He was lounging around the bins. They called the police and the officers who arrived walked around the car park but couldn't see anyone. When they went into the shop, the man was still clearly visible on the camera. One of the officers went out, and made his way to the bin area. The other officer who remained in the shop directed him to the bin area. The office was apparently standing right in front of the man, put his arm out and it went through him. The office in question said he saw nothing, or felt nothing. The officer in the shop and all the staff were understandably freaked out.

Anyway, so they all left the shop, went home and thought no more about it. A few days passed, nothing on the CCTV, no issues. Then it happened again. The same man was seen on the camera. The police were called, no one in the vicinity despite the evidence to the contrary. The police were confused and have apparently taken the tapes for further analysis.

The side story is that the store is apparently haunted. items have been known to fly off the shelves - as in launch themselves across the shop. And all the staff refer to the ghost as "George"

*disclaimer* I was told this by a friend of the family last night. I am telling it with my usual amount of skeptism and cycnicsm - just because it's a friend doesn't mean it's true, however in this instance I am erring on the side of "something happened"... mainly based on the person who experienced it, and the person who told the story. My personal theory is something that happens to look like a man when lit up in the right way - i,e combination of street light and car headlights making a pile of rubbish look human. However, for the same thing to happen twice on different nights makes me uncertain. Regardless of the truth in the police bewilderment, I do like the idea of them being creeped out at the ghost in the car park!

Posted: 11-04-2013 13:36 Post subject:

Please tell me someone had their iPhone on the screen and filmed it?

Posted: 11-04-2013 18:51 Post subject: Re: CCTV ghost

Posted: 11-04-2013 23:47 Post subject:

It may not be that strange - well, it is strange, but may not be out of character. A lot of times when a truly weird event is witnessed, it is somehow "blocked out" as a coping mechanism in certain people. There have been mentions of this behaviour on the forum before.

Posted: 12-04-2013 16:11 Post subject:

Posted: 12-04-2013 18:49 Post subject:

Posted: 12-04-2013 20:00 Post subject:

Ah, but they all have to retire to their individual beds eventually, though!

Posted: 14-04-2013 18:36 Post subject:

I'm thinking it's a case of simulacra. The fact that the figure's face couldn't be seen and that it was 'lounging' (aka not moving), combined with how unclear CCTV footage tends to be, makes me think it was something else that just looked like a person. It also explains why the policeman standing in the spot couldn't see anything: he was looking at the area from a different angle so couldn't see the simulacra.

Still, this is a pretty good tale. Next time it appears make sure photos are taken!

Posted: 14-04-2013 19:17 Post subject: Re: CCTV ghost

Posted: 15-04-2013 12:38 Post subject:

The police will report on the CCTV and then it will go back to the head office of the shop so it's all being evidenced etc.

As for my comment about they thought no more about it... I think it was a case of at the time, all the staff just wanted to go home. They were relieved that there was no one outside, and that they were free to leave.

Admittedly there may have been some staff who did think it was odd/spooky or something other than just an accident of the light but the friend's daughter wasn't one of those and so the story I heard was that no one seemed perturbed until it returned.

I don't know when I'll next see her but I will definitely ask for more and see if anyone took any photos etc. I am tempted to start turning up in the carpark myself at night, just to see for myself Very Happy

Posted: 13-07-2013 17:31 Post subject:

This thread reminds me of something that happened one night as I was working on an airplane in Maine 25 years ago. We worked in a hangar that had some ghost stories attached to it. I think I relayed a story here on another thread about a friend of mine hearing footsteps in that hangar one Christmas day. Well, we had a twin engine passenger plane parked outside the hangar and I was working on rigging the right hand engine on it with a coworker named Scott. We'd make an adjustment on some linkage and then start it up and run it, then shut it down and tweak it again. We'd gotten it adjusted just right and we went inside the hangar to round up some tools and parts we needed to finish the job, so once inside the hangar we went our separate ways. I found what I was looking for and went to the outside door of the hangar and onto the ramp outside. I could see our airplane parked there in the dark, and I could clearly see Scott standing next to the engine we were working on. I walked on out to the plane and as I did, Scott seemed to melt away. When I got next to the engine Scott was nowhere around. I was baffled by that and walked around the airplane, then climbed up inside and went up to the cockpit. I was all alone. I went back into the hangar looking for Scott and when I finally found him I mentioned what had just happened. Scott looked at me and told me he'd just done the very same thing! He'd walked outside and saw ME standing by the plane and as he walked out I seemed to fade away like a shadow. He searched around the plane and found he was alone also. We chalked it up as an optical illusion....but it makes ya wonder.

Posted: 13-07-2013 19:27 Post subject:

half the time the police wouldnt bother / be able to get cctv footage even if there were a criminal investigation to support ... im not buying them taking it away for forensic analysis because it looks like a hoodie haunting a co-op car park ...

Posted: 16-07-2013 21:31 Post subject:

So if the videotape DOES exist, it should show a policeman standing near the bins and putting his hand through a young man in a hoodie. That'd be worth some money to "GhostHunters" or one of those.