18 November 2016 | Haunted locations, Poltergeist
As yesterday’s post was so popular with readers, we thought it would be interesting to share another famous poltergeist account to terrorize you and keep you awake all night.
Poltergeist intrusions have always been some of the most fascinating cases in paranormal investigation. From the Enfield Haunting, the Amityville House through to the Monk of Pontefract, much of this activity is well known for being prankish, playful, and—although creepy—it is not particularly harmful. However, there are those cases in which a poltergeist will escalate its activities to a terrifying and intense level, running amok with ever more impressive displays of strength and power. One such case that has become one of the most incredibly potent poltergeist manifestations of all time was a spooky series of events surrounding a young family in a tranquil town in England. This is the case of the South Shields Poltergeist.
Up until the end of 2005, a young couple and their young son were living a relatively peaceful life in their terraced house in the gentle coastal town of South Shields in the United Kingdom. In December of that year, the family started to experience a series of steadily escalating paranormal incidents that they could not explain, no matter how hard they tried. It started with things like doors suddenly opening or closing on their own when no one was touching them or strange sounds coming from the walls. After that, furniture and other objects began to seemingly move around on their own, such as chairs found stacked on top of each other upon a table in the bedroom and a large, heavy chest of drawers moved from one bedroom to another. In some cases, the mysterious movement was witnessed or heard, such as when furniture could be heard moving about and sliding over the floor of the son’s room upstairs when no one was there, as they all cowered in fear on another floor. Other weird occurrences noticed during this time were bangs, thuds and knocking, which became more and more pronounced, as well as sudden dramatic temperature drops in rooms.
This all seems like typical poltergeist activity so far, but things would quickly graduate to even more bizarre and sinister levels when the spirit (or spirits) allegedly began to creepily turn its malevolent attention to the son’s toys, which it would turn into instruments of mayhem to terrorize the family further. The first instance of this happened one night as the couple was settling down to go to bed. It was at that point, as the wife began to lay down, that she reported feeling something hit her in the head. It was found that the projectile that thumped to the floor was, oddly, their young son’s toy dog. Since the son was not there and there was no one there to have thrown it, neither of them could figure out what was going on. It was not even clear how the toy had gotten into their room to begin with. Moments later, another stuffed toy hit the wife, propelled by an unseen force, this time with greater impact and ferocity.
As the couple sat there in the darkened room trying to figure out just what was going on, they were set upon by other toys flying at them and pelting them from all directions, seemingly coming from nowhere and sometimes stopping in midair to continue their trajectory. As the terrified couple pulled up the covers to shield themselves, they claim that something began trying to rip the blanket away from them. As they struggled in a sort of tug-of-war with the mysterious intruder, the husband is said to have suddenly screamed out in pain. It was soon purportedly found that red scratch marks had appeared on his back. Soon after that, the attack stopped as suddenly as it had begun. Oddly, the scratches are said to have completely disappeared by the following morning.
From there, the strange entity seems to have become hooked on using children toys to frighten and panic the family. One time, the family found their son’s rocking horse ominously hanging by its reins from the ceiling loft hatch, and on another occasion the couple was met by the creepy sight of a toy bunny sitting at the top of the stairs with a box cutter placed in its paws. Toys would also often roll across the floor on their own without warning, make eerie moaning noises, or turn on by themselves. Another weird occurrence was when a sink in the bathroom allegedly suddenly seemed to fill with blood to the point of overflowing, which vanished soon after. What was going on in this house?
One disturbingly menacing habit that this poltergeist had was leaving threatening messages on the son’s doodle board. These messages were typically ominous, aggressive, and peppered with profanity, saying things like “You’re dead,” “Just go now,” “Die bitch,” “RIP,” and “Go bitch now to your Mam,” sometimes joined by strange arcane shapes and symbols scrawled next to them.
These messages would graduate from the board to emails and SMS messages that the wife would receive on her mobile phone, which were typically death threats or promises of violence such as “Get you, bitch,” and “Die now.” One such message said, “Going to die today, going to get you,” and another read “I can get you when you awake, and I’ll come for you when you asleep, bitch.” None of the messages could be tracked to a number or email account, and they seemed to come from nowhere. Her cell phone would also be incessantly called by her home number even when she knew there was no one at home.
The South Shields Poltergeist has often been accused of being merely a prank or hoax played out by the family, but what do you think?
Could this family have been under attack from forces unknown?
© 2024, G. Michael Vasey & My Haunted Life Too.com (Unless indicated otherwise by author’s own copyright above). All rights reserved.