10 Paranormal Events Witnessed By Police

Police officers mostly have a tough time of things. They witness gruesome crime scenes, have to deal with delivering bad news, and often don’t get the credit or thanks they may deserve after working long, tiring hours to solve cases. However, in some instances, police officers responding to an emergency call come across something totally different from what they usually do. Sometimes they don’t even have to leave the station to experience strange things.

10Surveillance Camera Figure

Officer Karl Romero was spending a relatively quiet Saturday evening on duty at the Espanola police station in New Mexico in 2014, keeping an eye on the several surveillance cameras installed around the place. Things were going well until he spotted something strange on one of the cameras pointed at the entryway to the station.

Scrutinizing the visuals on the camera, Romero initially thought that the bright white “blob” he was looking at must be an insect until he spied the legs below it. He realized then that he was looking at what he could only describe as a ghostly figure. Since the entryway to the police station is blocked off with a gate and secured with an alarm system, Romero knew it could not be a human figure that was showing up on the footage.

When he reported what he saw to his superiors the next day, most of them believed him. Some even came forward with their own scary experiences, saying that they often heard strange, unexplained noises in the building and had experienced weird sightings in the lobby as well. Romero relayed his story to KOAT TV, saying that he believes in ghosts and thinks that the ghostly figure he saw may have something to do with the unsolved murders that have taken place in the area over the years.

9Soul Collector

Lt. Frank Marra, now retired, was one of the police officers tasked with sifting through the rubble of the World Trade Center towers in September 2001. It was only in 2013, while conducting interviews for a 9/11-related book called Hallowed Ground, that he remembered encountering something paranormal during his long hours of work at the site.

One of the detectives who was also being interviewed mentioned hearing about a ghostly tale of an old Red Cross worker that appeared to some of the officers while they were working. The woman tried to serve them coffee and sandwiches, as was the Red Cross duty during World War II. Upon hearing the detective talk about this, Marra remembered seeing a black woman dressed in a Red Cross uniform appearing several times while he worked. She held a tray of sandwiches and disappeared every time he strained to get a better look at her.

Several police officers who were also stationed at the site after the attacks claimed to have seen large shadows and “black masses” among the debris. After seeing a medium about his experience and hearing that he may have witnessed a soul collector guiding spirits to the hereafter, Marra truly believes that this is what he saw.

8Enfield Poltergeist

In 1977, an unassuming house in Enfield made the news in a big way. It wasn’t because of a crime or missing child. Instead, Peggy Hodgson claimed that her house had been infiltrated by an evil entity. Hodgson claimed that her daughter, Janet, told her that her brothers’ beds were shaking and vibrating. The next evening, Hodgson heard a loud noise coming from the children’s bedroom. Upon investigating, she saw a chest of drawers moving by itself. She and the children were unable to move it back to its original place.

In addition to all of this, there was a strange knocking throughout the house and Janet seemed to be able to levitate above her bed. The case eventually drew the attention of famed paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. There was a lot of talk and accusations at the time, with many people believing that Hodgson and her children made the whole story up. However, at the same time that these arguments and conversations about the validity of the Enfield haunting were taking place, WP Carolyn Heeps signed an affidavit confirming that she had witnessed a paranormal event at Hodgson’s home after being called out to help the family.

Heeps confirmed in her statement that she saw a chair hovering just off the floor before it moved a little over a meter (4 ft) on its own. Afterward, the police left the house, stating that they could not assist the family since there was no perpetrator breaking the law.

Whether true or not, the events in the Enfield home were featured in the hit horror movie The Conjuring 2, which also features a scene where the police officer witnesses the chair moving on its own.

7Capitol Theatre Haunting

Sheriff’s deputy Dave Murphy was a complete skeptic when it came to the paranormal. That is, until he worked security in the Capitol Theatre in Salt Lake City in 2012. Murphy was a guest on the Syfy TV show Paranormal Witness in which he detailed exactly what he and other officers had experienced during their time at the theater.

Murphy rubbished all claims of the paranormal until he himself saw dark shadows moving through walls one night. Then doors started to slam shut on their own while no one else was in the theater. Next, Murphy heard spectral voices and music, and eventually the specter itself appeared in the middle of the stage. On one occasion, Murphy even saw a woman dressed in clothing dating back to the early 1900s. He claimed to have seen her walk right past him in the control room where he worked. Murphy also went on to say that eventually the shadows he saw the first time around wanted him out of the building and physically attacked him.

Blair Fuller, the administrative manager of the Salt Lake County Center for the Arts, also experienced the paranormal goings-on in the building for himself in the form of an elevator opening by itself and file doors opening and closing. Fuller believes that the main culprit haunting the theater is the ghost of a 17-year-old usher who died in a fire at the theater in 1947.

6Silbury Hill Beings

An unnamed off-duty police sergeant was driving along a road near Silbury Hill in July 2009 when he saw what looked like three forensic officers dressed in white coveralls standing in a field and staring at something on the ground. Stopping to investigate, he noticed that all three of the figures he was seeing were over 2 meters (6 ft) tall and had blond hair. While approaching them, he also heard what sounded like static electricity reverberating throughout the field. When the “officers” noticed him, they took to their heels and sprinted out of sight faster than any human would be able to. According to the sergeant, the three “beings” were inspecting a crop circle that had appeared in the field a few days earlier.

After experiencing further paranormal activity, the sergeant decided to contact UFO experts, which led to crop circle researchers Andrew Russell and Colin Andrews investigating the incident on behalf of the terrified officer. The Wiltshire police station had no comment on the sighting, stating that it was a personal matter because the sergeant was off duty at the time of the incident. Russell and Andrews, however, are convinced that the policeman saw something “out of this world.”

5Mysterious Voice

In 2015, 25-year-old Jennifer Groesbeck was driving home with her 18-month-old toddler, Lily, when her car hit a cement barrier and crashed upside down in a river. A fisherman spotted the wreck in the water 14 hours later and immediately alerted the police.

Officer Tyler Beddoes was one of the first to arrive at the scene, and when he spotted an arm through the window of the submerged car, he and three of his colleagues immediately jumped into the water to see if they could find survivors. At this point, all four of the men heard a woman’s voice calling out to them. Feeling extremely motivated by the chance to save a life, the men pushed themselves to get to the car only to find that Jennifer Groesbeck was dead and had been for some time.

Lily was hanging upside down, fortunately out of reach of the freezing water. The officers initially did not see her, but as soon as they were able to turn the car right-side up they saw the little girl and immediately got her out of the vehicle. Lily was unconscious, but her eyelids were fluttering, giving hope that she might make it out alive. She survived after being rushed to the hospital.

The police officers don’t know where the mysterious voice came from, but they credit it with motivating them to get into the water faster, which may have saved baby Lily’s life.

4Don Decker And The Devil

In 1983, inmate Don Decker was on compassionate leave to attend his grandfather’s funeral and was staying with family friends in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. Decker was washing his hands in an upstairs bathroom one evening when he suddenly became dazed and fell to the floor.

When he came downstairs after the incident, Bob Kieffer asked him what had happened to him, since he had deep scratches on his wrist. Decker told Kieffer about collapsing in the bathroom and claimed to have had a vision of an old man wearing what appeared to be a crown. Not long after this, water started dripping from the roof and the walls.

Kieffer called his landlord, thinking that the pipes on the property may have burst or be leaking somewhere. However, they realized that the pipes were located on the other side of the house and were not faulty. At this point, the water inside the house was falling down like rain as well as leaking upward from the floor. Glancing at Decker, the two men saw that he seemed to be in a trance-like state, and they immediately called the police. Things got progressively worse after they made the phone call, with Decker levitating off the floor and being flung around the room and against the wall, all while new scratches were appearing on his body.

Officer John Baujan and Officer Richard Wolbert arrived at the house, but while Baujan believed something paranormal was happening, Wolbert was not convinced and left the house without filing a report. The next day, two different officers defied Wolbert’s orders and visited the house to see if they could figure out what was happening. William Davies and John Rundle claimed to have witnessed a gold cross burning Decker’s skin as well as the man being lifted off the ground and thrown across the room.

When Decker was taken back to prison, some of the police officers on duty described water traveling up his cell walls and water with the consistency of silicone appearing on a supervisor’s shirt. A plumber was summoned to the police station, but he became visibly upset and left right away after seeing what was happening inside Decker’s cell. Most of the officers are fully convinced that Decker was possessed by the devil, giving him supernatural powers.

3Rendlesham Forest Incident

In the week between Christmas and New Year’s in 1980, James Penniston witnessed something strange in Rendlesham Forest while stationed at RAF Bentwaters. Penniston, senior security officer in charge at RAF Woodbridge, was the head of the police team called out to investigate an aircraft crash in the forest after unexplained lights were reported.

What he and two other officers found was nothing resembling a traditional aircraft. Instead, they found themselves faced with an unfamiliar craft resting on the ground on three legs. The craft was triangular in shape and fully intact. What happened next, as described by the men, was nothing short of paranormal.

Penniston wrote up an official report containing claims that their radios malfunctioned in the presence of the strange craft, blue and yellow lights were reflecting off its surface, and the air surrounding the craft crackled with electricity. After making notes of the symbols on the side of the craft and measuring its size, the lights coming off the sides of the craft’s surface intensified. It then lifted soundlessly off the ground, made its way through the forest, and sped away at an incredible speed.

At this point, there were more than 80 police officers at the site, all of whom witnessed the craft and its takeoff. After the incident was reported, all personnel present at the site were warned not to discuss what they had seen, and the investigation was classified as top secret.

2Indiana Demon House

In 2014, a police captain corroborated a story of a haunted house in Gary, Indiana, saying that he firmly believed that the house held something evil. The mother, Latoya Ammons, and the grandmother, Rosa Campbell, claimed that Ammons’ three children were possessed by evil entities that were causing them to levitate and walk backward up a wall. Claims were also made of mysterious footprints appearing throughout the house, and eventually a photograph (above) emerged that showed a “figure” inside the house’s porch. This photograph was distributed by the local police department with a note that the house was empty at the time the picture was taken. The picture was later proven to be a hoax photograph taken from an app, but this did not deter several people—including the police captain, priests, and social workers—from insisting that demons roamed the house.

Psychics descended on the house and claimed that it was inhabited by more than 200 demons, all of whom were possessing the three children who lived there. The possession allegedly caused the kids’ eyes to bulge out of their heads, their voices to deepen, and evil smiles to cross their faces.

The family doctor was not convinced, however, saying that the children were displaying delusional behavior encouraged by their mother. The children were taken away for a short while, but the family has been reunited and are now living in another house. They haven’t reported any paranormal activity since.

The “demon house” was destroyed in January 2016 after it was purchased by Zak Bagans, executive producer of Ghost Adventures.

1Devil’s Peak incident

Maurice “Frenchy” Theriault had a difficult childhood after suffering abuse at the hands of his father and witnessing a terrible event in his family barn. The event has never been fully explained, but it is known that Frenchy had to participate in horrible acts after witnessing the unnamed event. As he grew older, Frenchy noticed strange abilities within himself, such as knowledge of things he had never learned about and superhuman strength.

He was deterred from joining the army by his father, causing him to leave the house and eventually settle in Warren, Massachusetts. By 1985, Frenchy had married, and he and his wife lived on a farm in Warren. But all was not well in the Theriault household. Not only would blood appear randomly all over the house, but the couple began hearing voices and seeing things that would disappear without explanation. Unexplained fires broke out on the farm, and eventually Frenchy took his guns to the local sheriff and asked him to keep them for the safety of himself and his wife.

Th events continued. Frenchy would be in one room of the house but then appear to his wife in another room. Trying to talk to him or follow him would result in him disappearing from her view, and she would find him in the original room where he swore he had been all along. Several witnesses saw this happening, including a police officer from the local station.

Eventually, Ed and Lorraine Warren were called in to assist, and in turn they sought the help of Bishop Robert McKenna to perform an exorcism on Frenchy. Ed Warren almost died during the exorcism, but it was successful at the end. Frenchy’s troubles continued, however, and he was eventually arrested for sexual abuse of a minor.

Estelle lives in Gauteng, South Africa. She is fascinated by all things creepy and spooky but is yet to see a ghost in real life.