[Music] [Music] when I was growing up I lived in a small farmhouse on 2 acres of land our home was not a busy Farm but many different animals came to stay with us over the years we had cats dogs chickens rabbits and even a few farm animals that visited my mother was a kind veterinarian who spent much of her free time helping animals she cared for sick hurt or mistreated animals and found them new homes where they could be safe and loved our home was quiet and peaceful with birds singing and Wildlife all around reminding
us that we were not in a city there was also a walking Trail in the woods behind our house and during the warmer months tourists hikers and campers often used the trail now I loved reading books and spend a lot of time in our barn the barn was located at the back of our property along the fence and I spent many hours there taking care of the animals and reading all my books so sometimes I could hear people talking and laughing as they walked along the trail when I was 10 years old I usually got
home from school about an hour before my mom finished work I was a responsible kid so my mom trusted me to catch the bus and start on my chores without any help that day as usual I hopped off the school bus opened the front gate by myself and walked up the dirt driveway toward our house when I stepped inside I went straight to the kitchen where I made myself an after school snack I prepared a good oldfashioned peanut butter and jelly sandwich and poured a cold glass of milk then I took my snack and went
out the back door heading toward the barn I knew my afternoon routine very well usually our dogs would run up to greet me barking and circling around my legs with their tails wagging happily but today I didn't see them anywhere I called for them but they didn't come instead I heard soft muffled barking coming from the barn that was very strange because we never locked the dogs in the barn during the day they stayed outside and at night they slept with us inside the house I placed my snack on an old rough tree stump near
the barn then I walked slowly to the barn door and carefully opened it to see if the dogs were okay as soon as I opened the door all three dogs burst out running happily with their tails wagging I knelt down and petted them relieved to see that they were all fine after they had greeted me I looked inside the barn from the doorway and there was no one else maybe my mom had locked the dogs in that morning for some reason or perhaps the wind had blown the barn door shut and they went inside I
didn't worry too much I picked up my snack and sat on a bail of hay inside the barn the dog sat at my feet while I shared small pieces of my sandwich with them then out of the corner of my eye I saw a tall thin man with Long messy gray hair walking right past the barn entrance I could hear him making strange babbling sounds his voice was low and odd like he was speaking in a language I had never heard before oddly my dogs did not react as they normally would instead of barking or
running over to investigate they glanced toward the door where the man had walked by they wagged their tails a couple of times almost as if they were curious but then went back to sitting near me normally when a stranger comes on to our property my dogs jump up bark loudly and rush over a small bit of fear tugged at my stomach but not too much because I was just a kid and my dogs looked happy I tiptoed to the doorway and peaked around to get a closer look at him he was very tall and so
thin that you could see his ribs and spine sticking out his hair was messy Like A Rat's Nest and his beard was just as untidy now he was bending over our chicken Coupe and I guessed he was searching for eggs he pulled an egg out and stopped his strange babbling studying the egg for a long time then he whispered something softly to the egg that I couldn't understand I strained to hear his words but they were lost in the air then without any warning he picked up the egg with his hands and put the whole
thing into his mouth I watched in shock as he bit down hard I noticed that he was missing his front teeth and his mouth was oddly shaped as he chomped the yellow yoke began to spill out slowly running down his chin and neck I could see see him grinding his jaw as he chewed and the crunch of the hard shell my stomach twisted and I wanted to vomit or scream but I was completely Frozen in place when I finally snapped out of my shock I screamed so loudly that the man turned his head to look
at me he didn't stop what he was doing he just kept eating I ran out of the barn as fast as I could my feet splashing in the wet green grass I climbed the back wooden steps quickly and rushed into the the house I slammed the door shut and locked it behind me my heart was pounding hard in my chest and I felt terrified I was very scared for my dogs and felt guilty for leaving them outside with that man I pulled the small white curtain away from the window on the door and carefully looked
outside to see if my dogs were safe outside in the middle of our yard I saw the strange man standing still he was staring hard at our back door and to my shock my dogs were calmly licking small bits of raw egg from his fingertips as if they thought he was a friend even though the man seemed friendly with my dogs and they did not act scared I felt very unsafe so I knew I had to call for help right away before something worse could happen as I reached for the phone I heard the Man
start babbling loudly again my hands were shaking so much as I quickly died my mother's work number the strange babbling grew louder and seemed to be getting closer I trembled even more and could barely speak when my mother answered with a shaky voice I managed to say that I needed help and that there was a man on our property my mother told me to go upstairs immediately I slowly climbed the stairs and followed her instructions exactly hoping that help would come soon my my mom quickly ended the call and then called the police I heard
the man's heavy footsteps as he stomped up the back steps once I reached my room I locked the door just as my mom had told me I then crawled under the bed making sure not even one toe peaked out the space under the bed was dark and cold and I could barely breathe as I listen to the loud banging on the door I lay there shaking and quiet hoping that the noise would stop soon and that I would be safe I kept thinking about the school holidays coming in a few weeks I really did not
want to be gone when they arrived the man walked around the outside of the house I heard him banging on the Windows making odd frustrated noises and yelling words that I couldn't understand probably at me but he clearly wanted to come inside and I was waiting for a window to shatter or for him to kick in the back door when you're scared time seems to slip away and I lost track of how long I hid and listen to him but it didn't feel like long before I heard the police arrive I could hear the Wailing
sirens and the sound of their radio coming closer soon I heard them talking to the strange man outside they asked him questions in a firm clear voice but he didn't answer them instead his babbling grew louder and sounded more panicked like he was really scared feeling a bit safer now that the police were there I slowly crept downstairs and carefully moved to the window to look outside I could see the flashing lights of the police cars and hear the officer's voices in the light I saw my mother running down the long dirt driveway she looked
very panicked her face was pale and she moved quickly as she burst through the door clearly desperate to get to me and bring me to safety my mom wouldn't stop hugging and kissing me while the police asked me questions about what had happened I felt a bit embarrassed because I was trying to explain everything and she was so worried that she kept showing her love in front of everyone soon after more police arrived as backup they took the man with them to the police station and I remember watching as he was led away in handcuffs
about a week later the same two police off officers returned to our house they came back to speak with us again and to give my mom an update on the investigation the police explained that the man on our property had been secretly living in our barn at night and hiding in the woods during the day for a few months many people had seen him on the trail during the summer he was homeless but he was not usually dangerous this is why my dogs did not seem afraid of him they had become friends with him the
police also said that he had health problems and had been in and out of the hospital many times they explained that the man had started hiding in our barn when the weather began to get colder because he had nowhere else to go he was a sick man struggling with his health and trying to survive on his own over the years many people had seen him on the trail during the summer and my dogs had grown used to him they saw him as a friend because he treated them kindly this story does not end with that
frightening night 27 years later I attended his funeral by that time the man who we called Jim had finally gotten the help he needed with the support and care of my mother Jim received treatment for his health problems and learned how to take better care of himself in the end my mother's kindness made a difference and Jim's story ended on a peaceful note at his funeral he started taking his medication again and began receiving his Disability Pension my mother helped him find a small place to live in town and even paid the security deposit so
he could rent it Jim then began helping out on our property he would volunteer to care for the animals with my mother and me later on he got a few paid hours each week at the vet clinic where he helped clean and look after the area Jim was a sick man and sometimes he had bad episodes but for the most part the last part of his life turned out pretty well he made friends in town and received support from his community he found a job and a home and there were always people around to help
him we buried our friend Jim last week even though he once frightened us a lot and had no one in his life he ended up making a big lasting impact on all of us especially the animals loved him so much sometimes after meeting someone who seems creepy you think you'll never want to see a person like that again most of the time that feeling is normal but Jim deserved another chance he wasn't a bad or mean person he just needed someone to help him get back to a normal life [Music] my parents were looking for
a vacation home they could have bought a house by the water in the Hamptons but they didn't instead they bought an old 18th century farmhouse in Upstate New York that is haunted The Farmhouse is on 100 acres of land and has seven bedrooms there is also a tenant house that is split into two parts so that male and female servants could live separately along with several other small buildings on the property and there was a small one room Schoolhouse built many years ago it had a little Dome on top called a Cupa and inside that
Cupa hung a big Bell that used to ring when it was time for class not far from the schoolhouse there was a huge Barn made of old wood the barn was so large that it had beautiful mahogany stalls for the horses each stall shown nicely when the sunlight hid it we were told that long ago during the French and Indian War Fierce battles were fought on this land in another part of its history the property even served as a stage coach in Travelers on Long Journeys would stop there to rest share meals and tell stories
of far off places the house itself had a very heavy and gloomy feeling it was as if the old spirits and memories of past events were still there watching every move you constantly felt like someone or something was looking at you from the dark Corners I remember sitting in the living room watching TV on a beautiful summer day I was the only one at home because my mom and siblings had gone into town shopping I was watching I Love Lucy on one of the few TV channels available then suddenly I felt a strong heavy feeling
as if someone was watching me I got so scared that I left the house and started walking toward town now years later I found out that my brother had experienced the same thing and reacted in the same way the first strange event I couldn't explain happened in my bedroom which had two twin beds my mom and I were the only ones at home that weekend and she was sleeping in the other bed then around Dawn I woke up to the sound of sheets moving on her bed the noise was loud and steady like a continuous
rustling that filled the quiet room I lay there for a moment feeling confused and a little scared trying to figure out what was making that sound I slowly rolled over to see what was happening there was no one in the bed I first thought maybe my mom was making my brother's bed in his room which shared a wall with mine but she wasn't there at all she was in the kitchen which was at the far end of our huge house house you have to understand that this house was very big the kitchen was on the
first floor and my bedroom was on the second floor it was so far apart that even if something as loud as a bomb went off in the kitchen I probably wouldn't have heard it from my room one time my mother who never believed in ghosts was staying at the house by herself that night she decided to sleep in my bedroom in the middle of the night she suddenly felt something heavy sit on the corner of her bed pressing down on the mattress At first she thought she might be dreaming or that her mind was playing
tricks on her but when she looked closely she saw that the mattress was pushed down as if someone had really sat there yet the room was empty and there was no one around she was very startled and confused by the experience the room was completely quiet except for the sound of her own quick breathing and the soft rustling of the bed sheets we owned this house for many years and many strange things happened here there was also a haunted restaurant in town called the Bulls head in we rarely ate there because it was very expensive
and I never saw anything strange happened there myself however people say that the bar was built in a room that used to be the bedroom of an old woman she was part of the temperance movement which meant she did not approve of drinking alcohol according to the story she would throw cocktail napkins around and some say she even broke [Music] glasses I have told this story many times but I still get chills when I think about that night so few years ago my friend and I Lov to explore places in Connecticut that people said were
haunted we would drive to old houses Dark Forest and abandoned buildings even though we never saw any ghost or anything strange then one day we decided to visit my hometown it is a small town where people grow corn barns are everywhere in my area some barns are new and shiny While others are very old I grew up in a small town where everyone knew each other and many people worked in the corn fields when they were young my father was one of those people who worked on a local farm and he has many memories from
that time one memory he often shared was about a strange man he saw on the farm this man used to walk in the rafters of a large barn at the back of the field the rafters are the wooden beams that hold up the Barn's roof roof and they Creek when someone walks on them many workers had seen the same man but only a few knew who he really was then one day my father became curious and asked about him his face turned pale when he learned that the man was a ghost fast forward to a
recent ghost tour my friend and I were on and we set off to find that very Barn getting into the fields was easy because the owners were family friends and gave us permission we joked that the drive to the Back Field felt like a scene from a horror movie the road was very muddy from storms earlier in the week with puddles that made every turn feel unpredictable as we drove flashes of lightning lit up the dark sky while a new storm slowly approached to help us find our way I pulled out my phone and opened
Google Maps the aerial view showed the whole property and I could see a small Mark where the barn used to be and I noticed that the barn had long since collapsed and was hidden deep in the forest which made it very hard to spot from the road despite knowing its true location from the map I kept this secret from my friend it wasn't until we got close that we both felt a heavy strange pressure in our chests as soon as we drove past it the feeling quickly faded away even even though we were both scared
we wanted to see the barn clearly so we turned around we parked the car and aimed the headlights into the forest to light up that heavy feeling returned and this time it was much stronger we eventually had to leave because everything felt angry just then a shadow appeared in the bushes in front of the barn it looked like a man and it stood there watching us we panicked and rushed to get out of the fields almost getting stuck in the mud along the way that feeling of anger and Dread stayed with us until we finally
left the farm the drive back home was quiet because the storm had arrived pouring heavy rain everywhere when we got home the first words we said were to my father you were right [Music]
