Monday, August 4, 2008

Is this old house really haunted?

One afternoon late last month, the caretaker of the house caught a group of middle-school boys in the backyard and called the police. “They said they had heard rumors in school that it was haunted,” said the caretaker, Dylan Dougherty, a 36-year-old special education teacher in Sheepshead Bay. “They called it the pumpkin house.”

The boys were released with a warning, and the fence has since been repaired.


Curious Kids in a Creepy House

Still, the rumors persist. An 11-year-old girl who lives nearby said her friends had warned her that the house was spooky.

“They be like, ‘Don’t go near that house,’ ” she said. “I’m not afraid, though. Not that much.”

But according to Mr. Dougherty, the children’s suspicions are not entirely unmerited. In his three years living on the second floor of the house, he said, he has heard strange sounds with unexplained origins, among them heavy footsteps and ringing bells. “It’s pretty creepy,” he admitted.

Visiting the house that afternoon was Mr. Dougherty’s fiancée, a fellow teacher named Tyiba Rashid. Ms. Rashid was more direct. “It’s completely haunted,” she declared.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just rumors they are starting to keep the punks from assaulting the place.

Now Arbitration Rock, well there is a piece of REAL history.

They should give it a Queensmark!

Anonymous said...

I think it was an amusing, benign, human interest story. If one were to start rumors to keep "punks" away, the NY Times would not be the best communications channel.

Anonymous said...

wow this house doesnt look scary !!!!!!!!!!! why dont the people who wrote this articale should go and check the house