July 19 & 26, 2008

Elsing’s Second Hand Shop

PIM

Paranormal Investigators of Milwaukee Investigation Report

Investigators:

Investigators present were Noah, Steve, Candice, and Karen, as well as author Sherry Strub on July 19, and Noah and Deidre on July 26. Vicky was there both nights.

Equipment:

Natural and Standard Tri-field EMF meter, Pyrometer, Sony DCR-SR80 SuperNightShot hard drive camcorder, Sony Cybershot 3.1 megapixel digital camera, UV flashlights, Geiger counter, hygrometer, Nikon D50 camera w/18-55 mm and 70-300 mm lenses, and 720nm IR filter, Sony DCR-TRV350 camcorder, Sony DCR-TRV110 camcorder, Sony DCR-TRV280 camcorder w/720nm and 950 nm IR filters, Canon Powershot A5 zoom camera, Olympus PC3100 voice recorder, Sony IR Illuminator, IR Flashlight, Windup LED flashlight, two-way radios, Sony ICD-P520 voice recorder, Full-spectrum digital camera, H2 voice recorder, Canon A530 digital camera, and UV flashlights.

Conditions:

It was partly sunny and 75°F with 40% humidity. The moon was a waning crescent and was 38% full. Solar X-rays were normal and the geomagnetic field was quiet. This data was for July 26. These readings were not taken on July 19.

Plan:

For both investigations, PIM met at Elsing’s around 6 pm. After introductions, all parties went to the Koffee Kup for dinner. PIM also spent the night at Elsing’s both nights.

July 19^th Investigation:

When we went to dinner two voice recorders were left running - one on the main floor and one in the stairs leading to the basement. The group returned around 7:30 pm and got its gear ready. Steve placed a stationary camera in the storage area of the basement - pointing towards the room with the fuse boxes. We did this in hopes of catching activity that occurs in the back area when we aren’t there (it is hypothesized that whomever lives in the back room moves from one room to the next). We also placed Vicky’s voice recorder in the bookroom to run all night.

Before beginning, Steve went around with his digital camera with IR filter and took pictures of all the areas in the shop. Candice also went around and wrote down impressions she picked up from the building before we started investigating. Below are her impressions:

At Elsing's Simon was VERY aware that we were there, but shifted his focus from Noah last time, to me mainly. He would follow me and wanted to target people when they were alone. He was trying to intimidate all of the women on purpose, to scare them. He was the strongest in "his room". He was stronger this time in the entire far back on the basement, which used to be a part of the grocery store storage areas. There were 2 males and 1 female I picked up on in the storage area off of the furniture room. They knew we were here and were uneasy about it. There was a "teen" male in the rear of the furniture room. It felt as though he had no real connection to reality anymore. He felt me there, but didn't acknowledge me at all. The cubby still felt a little uneasy and felt as though a little girl was sitting slouched forward on the chair inside it. I always felt as if someone was right behind me when I was alone and was trying to scare me on purpose. I feel as though Simon has become more aggressive, especially towards the women. I consider him HIGHLY unpredictable and wouldn't advise anyone, especially women, to go back there alone at night for safety reasons. Under the floor in the hall leading from off of the stairs to the bookroom, it felt as though there was a shallow "trench" under the floor, and a shallow "pit" that was empty between the holiday room and bookroom. I always felt while we were upstairs, that (possibly) Simon was waiting at the bottom of the stairs. I picked up on an older, grey haired woman in the attic (prostitute?). I picked up on 2 women, possibly early 20's that definitely were prostitutes. I picked up a "black energy cloud" along the right rear of the attic. It wasn't evil, just felt full of sorrow, confusion, etc. "Abigail" followed us that night around the entire property. She felt safer with us because Simon was trying to scare or hurt her on purpose.”

Karen also went through and came up with some impressions of the location. See her impressions below:

Karen’s Impressions – Elsing’s – July 19^th

Book Room – I felt there was some heaviness down at the end of the hallway that could not be explained. Almost felt like someone was standing at that end of the hallway looking down and around the corner to see who was there.

Hallway from Book Room to Furniture Room in front of Christmas Room – Upon walking from Book Room to Furniture Room, I felt as if there was a dip in the floor as I felt like my body had dropped a little. Having that feeling at a prior location, I kept walking back and forth over the space to see if I could have the same feeling. Unfortunately, I couldn’t recreate the feeling. It almost felt as if there was some type of energy I had passed through that was no longer there after the initially feeling.

Furniture Room – I felt a little girl presence near the front of the room by the rocking chair. I almost thought I heard a small voice ask me, “Why are you here?”

Back Storage Rooms – On my original walk through, I didn’t want to go back there by myself. Later on in the evening, when in groups, I felt as if Steve, Vicky and I were being followed into Simon’s Room. Once inside the room, I did not feel the same presence as it stayed outside of the room.

I did pick up on one black male presence down the hall way, near the back storage room – he seemed to be very built, wide nose, some facial hair, short cropped hair with a little bit of curls on top. I only saw an image of his face – nothing else.

Upstairs Attic – On my first round up there with Noah and Sherry, I felt a male presence near the far back right side of the space – near the windows where Noah said the Sheriff committed suicide. I couldn’t make out what he looked like, as to me it felt like a dark mass – shadowlike.

When returning to the space to do baseline readings, I picked up on a female presence in the corner across from the staircase. To me, she felt like a quiet, timid person. I partially got the impression she didn’t know we were there. Possibly residual.

I also picked up on an older gentleman who seemed to be sitting in a chair that was by itself amongst all of the boxes. This gentleman to me had grey hair, a very businessman-like attitude. He was wearing a suit and a tie. To me, he seemed to just sit there, looking around with his hands on his knees – not sure if he was residual or intelligent.

There was one entity that bothered me – a woman, possibly in her 50s, thin, frail, wearing a cheese-cloth type dress with no sleeves, frizzled hair. After our base readings, we were heading downstairs. To me, this individual seemed to single me out, and I had this thought in the back of my head saying, “You’ll be back.” After dinner, and I went on my own to evaluate the property, I was about to head back up to the space, but two steps up the stairs, I had the impression that the woman was there by the stairwell, looking down and pointing at me saying, “See, I told you you’d be back.” I left only to return with Candice, who seemed to pick up on her as well.

Throughout the night whenever I was there, this particular entity seemed to follow me. She was shorter than me – maybe 5’6”/5’7”, but she walked with a hunch and shuffled her feet. She seemed to find it funny that she was freaking me out. Audibly, I kept telling her to leave me alone. Luckily for me, she never left the attic, nor went past the stairs.

All in all I picked up on at least seven different entities. I’m not 100% if this was also partially from hearing stories from others in regard to what they felt in the place, but I know at least the older lady and the older gentleman I do not recall hearing things about.

Will have to see in October if I pick on the same things, or if things are different.”

We then split into two groups. Noah, Candice and Sherry went upstairs to the third floor while Steve, Karen and Vicky headed to the basement.

While on the third floor, Candice detected three prostitutes who seemed to be interested in Noah. Noah did everything he could think of to elicit a recordable reaction from the spirits but none was to be had. Other than a few bumps heard there was really no other activity detected on the third floor.

With the group in the basement, Karen used a pendulum to try and communicate with the spirits. It was reported that the pendulum was swinging wildly during the question and answer session. That is all the reported activity from that session.

The groups returned to the main floor to take a quick break. The teams then switched areas, but Vicky remained outside as it was too hot for her upstairs (average temperature was 90°F).

While in the basement, Noah’s team started with ten minutes of controlled silence in which not a creak, bump or knock was heard. Once the group started investigating, more than once a bump or knock was heard - mainly in the furniture room when the team was in the hallway by the bookroom. The team also spent time in the back basement with Candice tracking the entity that lives back there from one room to the next. Lastly, Candice did an automatic writing session in which she seemed to communicate with the little girl who is supposed to be at the shop. Scanned images of the writings are included with the evidence. Unfortunately, there were no recordable responses.

The team on the third floor reported the same random bumps the first team heard. Nothing more occurred.

The groups returned to the main floor to take a small break and decided to do some large-group work in the basement.

While there, the group spread out and did EVP work in the bookroom area and the furniture room. The group also decided to do another automatic writing session. During the question and answer session, Steve said he smelled something like roses. Whomever Candice was communicating with stated that it was its mother’s perfume. Steve said the smell came and went - no one else really smelled the same thing he smelled.

Noah found some old perfume bottles behind Steve and suggested it could be one of them. Steve smelled the bottles, but said it wasn’t the same as he has smelled before, although one bottle was close and he couldn’t rule it out completely.

We also headed back to the storage area of the basement and attempted to contact the entity in the back. Overall, we were not able to get any type of response to our attempts at communication at that time. That concluded the investigation of the basement.

At this time Sherry decided to head home and Vicky stated she wanted to go to bed. Members of PIM gathered their equipment and headed to the furniture room for the night.

Noah decided to sleep with a fan on to see if it would help with EVPs. Unfortunately, it seemed to drown out most noises. It was decided that using a fan would not be tried again in the future. Nothing of substance happened during the time the group slept.

Evidence:

At first as we went over the evidence, it seemed like there was a lot of EVPs that occurred while we were at dinner. Included are a few examples of what was captured. After listening to the recordings a few times, it was determined that all of the little girl EVPs was actually Otis whining and running up and down the stairs. Otis is normally left at the shop by himself while Vicky and Phil head to the Koffee Kup for dinner with the ghost groups. After what we captured, any EVPs that are captured by any team during dinner time while Otis is at the shop, need to be thrown out. Even if it sounds nothing like a dog there is no certainty that it wasn’t Otis. In the future, PIM will make sure Otis is not at the shop if voice recorders are running while at dinner.

With that being said, PIM believes we did capture a few EVPs from the investigation that were not recorded while we were at dinner. Unfortunately, it is hard to make out precisely what is being said in most of the EVPs. As not to taint everyone’s opinion by saying what we think is being said, listen to them and let PIM know what you think is being said - or if you even think they are EVPs.

The other evidence was carefully gone over and nothing more was found during this investigation.

July 26^th Investigation:

For this investigation it was decided to play white noise while at dinner. A couple radios from the shop were tuned to a static channel. We had one in the basement and one upstairs. We also played some of the EVPs Vicky has gotten in her shop and looped those while we were gone as well. Another group tried this method in the past and seemed to have gotten some activity. Being that PIM had never tried this technique, we decided to give it a go.

We left for dinner around 7 pm and arrived back at the shop at around 8 pm Phil took Otis and headed home and we got our equipment together then discussed the game plan. Due to last minute changes in availability, it was only Noah, Deidre and Vicky on this investigation. Before starting, Noah went around with his full-spectrum camera and took pictures of all areas of the shop. The group then headed to the basement.

We first did some EVP work in the hallway by the bookroom and Noah kept hearing sounds occurring in the furniture room. Ten minutes of controlled silence was done as had been done before. Again no bumps, knocks or creaks were heard during that time.

It was decided to move into the furniture room and continue the EVP session. While there, Noah tried to debunk the claim of the smell of roses Steve experienced the previous weekend. During the week, Noah asked Vicky to remove all perfume bottles from the furniture room so if the rose smell was detected again, it would not be caused by an old bottle. Deidre was also not informed of the smell so as not to put any preconceived notions into her head. Noah could not recreate the rose smell and it was not detected the entire night.

The group then moved to the back basement area and tried to communicate with the entity in the back room. Nothing occurred, so the group decided to head upstairs and take a break.

After the break, Deidre and Noah went upstairs to the third floor and investigated while Vicky stayed on the first floor due to the temperature of the third floor. Deidre and Noah again experienced some bumps and creaks, but nothing concrete.

Noah and Deidre then headed back to the first floor. After a break Vicky, Noah and Deidre headed back to the basement. Another EVP session was done in the hallway by the book and furniture rooms, as well as the back basement area. Afterward the group returned to the furniture room.

It was during this last EVP session in the furniture room the majority of the activity occurred. During the session, Noah heard what sounded like either a step or knock from the hallway by the bookroom. When he got up to investigate, he caught a moving orb on his NightShot camera. This video is included with the evidence burned on the CD given to Vicky. Noah dislikes orbs and doesn’t put much credence into them, and feels the moving orb could be a piece of dust that was caught in an air current. The fact it was captured shortly after an audible anomaly gives it slightly more clout. After viewing the video, please judge for yourself.

After these experiences, the investigation was over for the night. Deidre opted to sleep on the first floor. Noah joined her and placed his voice recorder on the stairs leading to the basement for the night.

Evidence:

Other than the orb captured on Noah’s camera no other video evidence was captured. Pictures taken did not yield any strange photos - even the ones taken with the full-spectrum camera. A few EVPs were captured - namely what seems to be an answer to the question “When is your birthday?” Take a listen and let PIM know what you think it says – if it says anything. There were also some strange bumps captured when everyone was upstairs sleeping. Again, noises don’t normally happen in the building as attested to the controlled silence the group uses but these bumps struck as a little out of place. That was all the evidence captured during this investigation.

PIM would again like to thank Phil and Vicky for being wonderful hosts. Vicky made cookies once again and Phil already had the windows upstairs covered when we arrive. They are great and if there was a client hall of fame somewhere they surely would be in it. Thanks again!

Tags: Elsing's 2nd Hand Shop Ghost Hunt Report Ghosts Spirits Haunted Elsing

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