ANDREW HOMER looks back over his paranormal case files and remembers a haunted toy hare that wasn’t
Last year I received an urgent call from a friend called Eileen who was in something of a panic. She had become convinced her home was haunted and could I please come and do something about it? On arriving at Eileen’s Edwardian terraced house, I got the full story.
Apparently, she had invited some friends over for an Easter celebration the night before and someone had brought a Ouija board with them. Thinking it would be fun to try and contact the ‘spirits’ they had turned the lights down in the living room and immediately started using the board. Unfortunately, nothing was done to try and prevent any negative or unwelcome energies from coming through. This was to prove a big mistake.
According to Eileen, “It was mostly nonsense at first until suddenly the glass seemed to take on a life of its own. It raced around the board and spelt out the name Jack”. Jack went on to spell out how he had been murdered during the Easter Rising of 1916. This really struck a chord with one of Eileen’s friends as he had Irish ancestry. However, the session had to be brought to an abrupt end when the entity suddenly turned nasty, spelling out swear words and making threats. Eileen was extremely upset by all of this, especially as she lived alone and wished they had never messed with the Ouija board in the first place.
In need of a stiff drink and a change of scene after the amateur séance they had all gone into the front room. Eileen had recently bought a novelty Easter Bunny for her nieces to play with. If turned on by its own remote control it would start to sing and jig around on the spot. Eileen explained what happened next, “As we were all sitting around in the front room with the lights dimmed ready to play a video game the bunny suddenly burst into life, singing loudly and dancing manically even though no-one had touched the remote”.
At this point they were all thoroughly spooked by these experiences and couldn’t get out of the front room fast enough! Eileen was absolutely convinced that the Easter Bunny was now possessed by the nasty spirit of Jack. It hadn’t helped that she had recently watched a programme on haunted dolls and by now Eileen was too terrified to even touch the bunny let alone throw it away.
We went into the front room to take a look and I proceeded to ask exactly what she and her friends had been doing in there the night before. It turned out they were having a drink and playing a video quiz game.
Well, after no more than two or three presses of the video game’s remote control the ‘possessed’ Easter Bunny duly burst into life! No more possessed bunny but one very embarrassed, and very much relieved Eileen when she realised it had only been the game’s remote-control interfering with the toy after all.
To date Jack has not yet made his presence felt in Eileen’s house but as Easter is now once more upon us who knows if I might get another urgent call …
Discover Andrew Homer’s latest book ‘Ghost Hunting in the Black Country and Beyond’ on his website at www.andrewhomer.co.uk
