12/14/2007: Thanks to the anonymous contributor for submitting this story of paranormal happenings at his former residence on Orchard Road in Lake County. He tells of the ghost of a small boy that was witnessed by more than one person. The house was recently sold and the new owners are now experiencing “weird” activities.
There have been two sightings of a little boy ghost in this residence by two separate babysitters. The boy appears to be about four-years-old. The first sighting came on September 8, 2001, just before the 9/11 tragedy. My niece Meghan was babysitting for me and my then girlfriend Misty; there to watch Tiffany. Meghan had fallen asleep on the couch in the living room with Tiffany finally laying down in her room. After shutting off the television to go to sleep, she awoke about an hour later to the TV being turned back on and the figure of this little boy sitting on my futon, which was adjacent to the couch Meghan was laying on. Sitting there perched up on top of the cushion peacefully. But a glowing white image with very difficult details to make out on its face or what clothes he had on. Meghan said to me that the little boy in fact was holding something up to her, like a rose or a flower of some sort.
Then a little over a month later, on Sweetest Day in October, we had Misty’s normal babysitter of choice, Nikki, watching Tiffany this time. Misty and I were out for about five hours, arriving home around 3:30 in the morning. Nikki and her boyfriend would always babysit together as Tiffany always got along great with both of them. But oddly enough, this particular evening, Nikki and her boyfriend were waiting for us to arrive anxiously on our porch. Nikki was hysterical as she frantically described to us this little boy ghost she had seen in Tiffany’s bedroom. Our dog we had at the time had laid down in Tiffany’s bed with her as she was getting ready for sleep. As Nikki was reading Tiffany a bedtime story, she had dozed off along with Tiffany to all of a sudden being awakened by the dog barking at something in the middle of the room. Seeing nothing for the dog to be barking at, Nikki calmed the dog down by petting and hugging it and soon it was sleep time again. Finally, the dog started barking even louder and more ferociously. Nikki waking up immediately sees this little boy ghost standing in the middle of the room. Not able to make out its face, and just seeing this bright glow of a boy around three or four-years-old, Nikki thought she was dreaming. But after wiping her eyes and shaking her head, this boy stood still and his presence remained until he started to reach out to her with one hand. Witnessing that, Nikki ran out of the room, woke up her boyfriend who was laying on the couch and the both of them sat outside until we came home. Nikki never babysat again for us there.
One night Misty and I were sitting in the living room watching TV at around 1:30 in the morning. We were always late-nighters, her and I. But this one particular night that first winter in this new house we moved into, all at once, the VCR, stereo, a lamp, the DVD player, and a CD player component all turned on at the same time. All remotes were up on the entertainment stand. I’m still marveled by that to this day because no way were we anywhere near any buttons or controls. It just freakishly happened!
In the spring of 2003, I was laying down on Misty’s bed that she had moved into the back corner room. We had been arguing about some issues that were going on, but at the same time, debating quite civilly. But all of a sudden, I could not move on this bed, like as if I could not feel anything below my neck. And then suddenly I started shedding all kinds of tears, but I was not crying. Figure that one out! I’m crying physically and so much as to wet the bed with a sizable puddle. But in no way was I crying emotionally. And I remember this green cloud haze start to illuminate above the bed, like some bright green cloud. This whole episode lasted for about five to ten minutes and then suddenly it all went away. Misty stood there with her jaw dropped. She did not see the same cloud I saw though. But she couldn’t believe how wet the bed was from the tears either!
This time it is in July 2003, Misty and Tiffany had been moved out for about a month and a half at this point as Misty and I had broken up and were not talking at all. The house had seemed quite naked as most of the furniture we had in the house belonged to Misty and had left with her. I had just got done rearranging the layout of the house as I was now living alone. On this particular day, a cat that had escaped from a neighbor’s house was running around in my yard and meowing as if it were hungry. So being the nice guy I am, I had let the cat inside and strangely enough the kitty just walked in like as if it was its own home. Right away upon getting it some food, I immediately went and shut all the doors in the house to keep the cap quarantined to the kitchen hallway and living room. (There was leftover cat food from when Tiffany had her cat and I had my cat there.) So here I am making my dinner as I had just gotten home from work when all this was happening. And I noticed that the cat had left the kitchen. So in looking for where kitty had went to, I noticed that every single door that I had just closed was now wide open. And weird as well because the bedroom doors always would never stand all the way opened and this time they were! Kitty was in the bathroom and stayed in the house for a while until it wanted outside.
This house and property went through a short sale to avoid foreclosure. The transfer of the deed actually took place in November 2007. I was alarmed by a phone call I received from my real estate agent asking me if I ever experienced any weird activity while I was living there. According to my real estate agent, the new owners are experiencing some things such as lights turning on and off by themselves, and certain rooms in part of the house suddenly becoming extremely cold. I have not spoken with the new owners yet about this though. I never mentioned it on the disclosure form, nor do I think I would need to about this sort of thing.