Phantoms and Monsters

The Truth Is Still Out There...
Bigfoot Migration Route Goes Through West Virginia?
The Legend of 'Allison's Grave' Continues
Unrepentant 100-Year-Old Pedophile Being Released From Prison
The Ring

Posted: 08 Dec 2009 09:52 AM PST

I found this on ATS today:

"I work for a package delivery service. Today (Monday December 7) I knocked on a door and a man came to the door. He signed for his package and looked up at the Air Force hat I was wearing. He asked if I was in the Air Force. I replied no, but by father was. I asked him if he was in the Air Force. He said he was at Scott AFB in Illinois."

"I got excited and nervous, but I asked him anyway...I said "so what about the large football field sized UFO that flew over several small towns near Scott AFB back in 2000?" He looked at me with a smile, nodded, and said "yeah, I was there." Then I said "so was it ours or the Greys?" His facial expression didn't change a bit, he only said the same thing "yeah, I was there."

"I could tell he was holding back something he couldn't divulge to me so I left it at that and then asked him what he thought really crashed near Roswell in 1947...a Mogul balloon as the Air Force says or an alien craft. He had a more serious look on his face now and said "I really think they crashed there." and "I knew the undertaker at Roswell that saw the alien bodies." After that he started walking back inside so I just said "thanks! and have a good day!" to which he said "you too!" and that was that."

"I am not going to divulge his name for the sake of his privacy, nor his address. I would estimate that he was in his early 40's. Typical smart Air Force guy. It always amazes me who you can run into and it never hurts to ask people questions because you might be shocked by their response."

NOTE: as some of you know, my father was an engineer in the USAF 509th Bomb Wing in the early 1950's. Mention the 1947 Roswell Incident, and one thing that always comes to mind is the 509th Bomb Wing that was stationed in Roswell when the incident occurred. Their place in history was also apparent in WWII, when they helped bring the war to an end by dropping the only atomic bombs ever used in wartime. Anyway, like I have stated on previous occasions, he served with several men who were present at Roswell during the incident. From the information I have gathered from him and other sources the incident definitely occurred and there were remains of some type of beings. The Mogul balloon story was simply a cover. Though the only evidence I have is word of mouth from witnesses, I feel the real truth has yet to be officially disclosed...Lon

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Bigfoot Migration Route Goes Through West Virginia?

Posted: 08 Dec 2009 08:47 AM PST

register-herald - Two brothers hunting for turkeys in the Monongahela National Forest split up and head out in different directions, one of them venturing into a small opening that leads within a few feet inside the woods to a massive ravine.

Suddenly comes the sound of something huge thrashing at the bottom of that deep ravine, too loud for a bear or a fellow hunter, but unmistakably walking on two feet, snapping limbs and crushing branches underfoot.

What follows next almost defies description — a blood-curdling scream that seems to reverberate off the sides of the ravine.

The hunter looks up at his brother, who inquires, "Did you get a shot at Bigfoot?"

To them, it's a big joke, another hunting story that survives well beyond that season.

But to rock musician Kris Allen, the idea of Bigfoot running around in West Virginia's rugged terrain is no laughing matter. Rather, it is a serious issue that has thrust him into a major investigation that entails two films.

Once the lead singer for the Marshall Tucker Band, and now the head of his new group, Southern Thunder, the veteran musician says he has seen three of the creatures in the Monongahela National Forest alone.

Actually, his first sighting came at age 8 when Allen, his parents, a sister and some neighbors spotted the curious creature in a tree in Chelyan, not far from his Marmet home, and watched it until darkness set in.

"It was almost as if you went to a zoo and had seen a spider monkey sitting in top of a tree," he recalled.

"It just stood there. It was a young one, a juvenile, about 6 feet tall. My father suggested someone call a newspaper, but Mom said by the time the newspaper got there, it would be dark. Back then, few people had video cameras. It acted like a monkey would do. I never even thought of it being a Bigfoot at the time."

To the uninitiated, Bigfoot, or Sasquatch, as he sometimes is known, is an ape-like creature and the object of serious research by man, and of scorn by some in the scientific community.

Years later, Allen would run into another one, this time with a girlfriend in tow at Kanawha State Forest.

"It was just sitting on the ground, on his butt, behind a big tree," Allen said.

"It was leaning around, looking at me eye to eye. Apparently, it had heard a noise walking up the hollow."

As soon as he made a move to get a closer look, Bigfoot had vanished.

By his own count, Allen says he has spied half a dozen of the mystical creatures, all of them in West Virginia.

"They have been seen in every state and every foreign country," he said.

Allen is hooking up with Animal Planet for some filming in Flagstaff, Ariz., and also plays an integral role in a 3-D documentary produced by Goldenleaf and Pixar, this one due for release next spring.

"We're going across the United States and getting the best of the best in there, the very best footage," Allen said.

While many in the world of science scoff at the concept of such a creature surviving all these years, Allen is convinced Bigfoot is real.

"I know exactly what it is," he said. "I have seen two species. The one in the Monongahela National Forest is called 'gigantopithicus blacky.' It was the largest of the large primates. Scientists at one point thought they became extinct 10,000 years ago.

"Anyone knows that it is impossible to predict the future of something becoming extinct without actually knowing this, and how can you absolutely know of something that is a nocturnal animal is extinct?"

Bolstering his personal research, Allen has engaged in a number of talks with anthropologist and animal welfare activist Jane Goodall.

Allen conducted more research this fall at Sherwood Lake in the Monongahela National Forest during what some scientists believe was the migration route.

"Some say they try to go down to warmer weather," Allen said.

"I disagree with that. I have camped up there in two blizzards since 1993. I camped there once when it was 20 below, the other time at 30 below. I won't ever go through that again.

"That was too much torture on the human body."

If Bigfoot is real, is he human or animal?

"From all the DNA samples we get back, every time we send something in, it comes back 98 to 99 percent human and 1 to 2 percent unknown primate," Allen says.

"It's very human. It's very intelligent. I've heard them speaking. It's very hard to do. I'm a vocalist and it's hard for me to do. If you can imagine, it's like breathing in, then making tunnel sounds. It's a communications noise."

Allen recalled a camping trip when he and his family, inside a tent, heard a peculiar noise in the forest.

"We heard something that almost was like it was one talking to another outside my tent," he said.

"It stood there for a good 10 to 15 minutes."

Even his loyal Rottweiler and pit bull, which had never displayed a fear of anything, were "totally freaking out."

"And the time we were up there camping in a blizzard, we heard the beating sound at the trees around us," he said.

"It was so loud that if you took a drummer in dead silent woods and amplify that drummer with huge amplifiers, it would be the loudest noise you could imagine. An hour before this happened, the dogs jumped in a tool box in the back of the pickup truck. They would not come out. It was the weirdest thing. I've never in my life seen a dog do this. I was trying to get them out of the tool box. But they wouldn't come out."

An hour later, the beating sound returned, and this time it sounded as if it were originating inside the tent.

"A few minutes later, we heard the same beating signal from across the lake," Allen said. "We felt like we were being hunted. They are tremendous hunters."

Allen says he has taken numerous photographs of nests that Bigfoot fashions from twisting sapling trees together, not unlike the way birds do, except on a bigger scale.

"They're almost like a bird nest, but upside down with a bunch of leaves inside for bedding," he said.

"And most of these nesting areas are right off a trail. I've encountered dozens of them. They're usually closer to you than what you think they are. There's a reason for this. Deer will follow a trail. It's quiet. They're not going to walk through the woods and make as much noise when they're on a trail. Usually, those trails follow creeks or river beds. Those are prime drinking and hunting areas for the Bigfoots."

Another tell-tale sign of Bigfoots are stacks of rocks in bizarre places inside a forest, he says, affording the creatures a good vantage point from which to stage an ambush.

Bigfoot is known to have attacked humans, Allen says.

"I've personally had rocks thrown at me. I've got a lot of witnesses on this. All of a sudden, a rock will be hurled at you. You're out in the middle of nowhere in the dead of winter, and when they go by your head, it sounds almost like the same velocity as someone slinging a rock with a slingshot right past your head."

Once, in the company of his son, Allen says, he spotted two of them ripping trees apart, either for the bark or the grubs.

"We stopped behind a rock, stood there for 20 minutes," he recalled. "We couldn't move. We just stood there in awe. As soon as they stepped into the darkness of a tree line, they were gone. They had vanished into the darkness of it. You could be looking into the woods directly at one and it almost looks like a shadow standing in the woods. You would never know it until it moves. This large one stepped out, about 12 to 13 feet tall, and as soon as that one came out, I told my son we had better run back to the camper as fast as we could about three quarters of a mile. We ran nonstop."

Explaining Bigfoot is another matter.

And in this realm, Allen has been given some ideas from Bible readers, citing the passage in Genesis 6:4, "there were giants in the earth in those days ..."

"There are several locations in the Bible where there were large men that once existed that became extinct," Allen said.

"They were considered to be giants on the earth. I'm not saying David fought one of these Bigfoots or whatever. There are a lot of humans out there that have a gene problem where their face is covered with hair. I'm not saying they're Bigfoots or descendants of Bigfoot at all. But I'm saying that thousands of DNA samples came back and they were 98 to 99 percent human and 1 percent unknown primate. You'd think that's too close, but it's not. That 1 percent makes a huge difference, especially if you look at the genes scale. But they're close enough to be human. They have a lot of human traits. They walk upright."

One major distinction is the foot.

"How you can bend your hand is how their feet are," he explained. "Their feet actually bend in the center. You can tell a fake footprint when you see one.

"People have actually come out and tried to fake people with hoaxes," he added. "If it doesn't have the midtarsal break in the foot, it's a fake."

Perhaps, he theorized, Bigfoot's descendants have learned over generations to avoid human contact, explaining his shy ways in the forests until he feels threatened.

A hunter in 1785 captured one with help from Native American friends and promptly named it the "hideous creature," wrapping it in binds and parading it through the streets of a town.

If he ever catches up with another Bigfoot, the musician says, he would attempt to communicate, but, taking Goodall's advice, won't look him directly in the eyes. He tested her on this at a zoo and found that a baboon was perfectly calm as long as he was watched from an angle, but the moment eye contact was made, the animal went ballistic.

"It's a form of territorial gesture," he said of eye contact.

"You could be some sort of a threat. I looked at that baboon eye to eye. He was behind a cage. I wiggled my eyes as he looked at me. He stretched his arm as far as he could and flashed his incisors at me."

And Bigfoot, so all the accounts go, is much, much bigger than a baboon.

NOTE: this is an interesting theory. The reports of large hominid sightings in West Virginia have increased over the years. The state itself is still a very wild wilderness in many areas and offers excellent habitat and cover for Bigfoot during the less severe seasons...Lon

The Legend of 'Allison's Grave' Continues

Posted: 08 Dec 2009 08:17 AM PST

northcentralpa - One of the most intriguing tales is that of "Allison's Grave" at the Mosquito Valley Cemetery near DuBoistown, Pa.

As with most ghost stories, there are many variations of the Allison legend.

Some say that the shadowy spirit seen at the cemetery is a woman who was decapitated in a plane or car crash.

Others say she is a WWII nurse who died in a plane crash while traveling home.

As these and other stories spread, the cemetery on Mosquito Valley Road eventually became a common destination for Halloween pranksters, seekers of the paranormal, and those just looking for a thrill.

Who was Allison?

Clues to her identity have been found in Lycoming County court documents and land deeds, and online genealogy sites.

Her name was Edna A. (Bogert) Allison, the second wife of Herbert F. Allison. After almost 20 year of marriage, they divorced in 1958 after having one son.

Local businessman, Larry Allison, who is Herbert Allison's grandson from his first marriage, has confirmed that, in the resulting divorce settlement, Edna took ownership of a rock and sand quarry business as well as a second home, both located in Nassau, the Bahamas.

In August of 1960, Herbert Allison remarried for a third time but, on January 3, 1961, he died suddenly while vacationing in Palm Beach, Fla.

According to his obituary printed in the January 5, 1961, edition of the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, 54-year-old Allison was president of Lycoming Construction Company and director of the First National Bank in Montoursville.

He was buried in Twin Hills Cemetery following a private family service.

Ill-fated Flight

In June 1964, Edna Allison left Williamsport on a commercial airline flight to Phoenix, Ariz. From there, she traveled to Aspen, Col., where she boarded a Cessna 310 on Sunday, June 28, for a flight to Dallas, a stopover before her final destination in the Bahamas.

There, she was scheduled to attend a business conference in Nassau in connection with her "rock and mineral business interests there," according to the article in the July 1, 1964 edition of the Sun-Gazette.

Piloting the light twin-engine plane was William Evans, 38, of McAllen, Texas.

In addition to Edna, the other passengers were Ed Gorman, 38, of Dallas, and Gus Theoklis, 29, of Los Angeles.

When the plane failed to arrive in Dallas, the Colorado Civil Air Patrol searched the mountainous area near Aspen, but the plane could not be located.

According to the July 1, 1964 edition of the Brownsville (Texas) Herald, the search for the plane was made difficult due to heavy thunderstorms and high winds.

Discovery is Made

Almost four months later, in mid-October, the plane was finally discovered in a remote high mountain area 9 miles northeast of Aspen.

Edna and the three other occupants were found, still buckled into their seats.

The sheriff leading the recovery efforts stated that it appeared the plane had "plunged straight down into the mountainside." (Big Spring (Texas) Herald, Monday, October 19, 1964)

Due to the badly decomposed condition of Edna's body, her remains were cremated and returned to her family members: a brother, Howard Bogert, who also lived in Mosquito Valley, and her son, who was then an Army private assigned to Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

Edna Allison's ashes were spread at Mosquito Valley Cemetery where a small gravestone marked her memory.

A large monument inscribed with the Allison name has been installed, perhaps due to the vandalism and the repeated removal of the small stone from the cemetery, especially at Halloween.

The Spirit of Edna

While some of the details of Edna's life can be documented and confirmed through newspaper accounts, courthouse records, and family memories, we can only make a guess in determining the true essence of this woman who lived during the first half of the 20th century.

While most of her peers did not work outside their homes, Edna was a divorcee, a businesswoman and an international traveler.

Perhaps it is time for her spirit to find peace and rest in Mosquito Valley.

NOTE: I remember hearing this tale when I was a boy....never knew the story behind it. Lon

Unrepentant 100-Year-Old Pedophile Being Released From Prison

Posted: 08 Dec 2009 07:55 AM PST

buffalonews - Theodore A. Sypnier is a century old, but you wouldn't know it by looking at him or talking with him.

He is highly alert, physically active and very capable of living alone and taking care of himself.

Theodore A. Sypnier also is a pedophile.

He has been convicted at least twice of molesting children and suspected in other cases over the last six decades in the Town of Tonawanda and Buffalo, and psychologists, police and others say he is likely to molest children again.

Therein lies a big problem.

Sypnier has been in prison for most of the last nine years and is soon to be released into a one-room apartment in Buffalo to live on his own.

If ever there was a person who should be permanently confined, even after serving out his prison term, police and experts say, it is Sypnier.

Sypnier, the oldest registered sex offender and parolee in New York State, is unrepentant.

"Those children crawled into bed with me because they were frightened, but there was never any sexual hanky-panky," Sypnier said of the two Town of Tonawanda sisters he was accused of molesting in 1999 while he was baby-sitting them.

He says he loves children and hopes to clear his name so that he can start up a relationship with several great-grandchildren he has never met.

Sypnier contends that he is the victim of a colossal miscarriage of justice, but authorities say he remains a threat to society and will be closely monitored once he leaves a Bailey Avenue halfway house.

Erie County District Attorney Frank A. Sedita III says he has no sympathy for Sypnier, who portrayed himself as a loving grandfather to children he met.

"Mr. Sypnier is the personification of evil and should be removed from civilized society permanently, until the day he dies," Sedita said. "He is an unrepentant child molester who has been doing this or trying to do this for 60 years. He can't be cured. He's not sick. He's evil. He's not old. He's evil."

Sedita's predecessor, Frank J. Clark, said Sypnier remains "manipulative and pathological," even as a centenarian.

"It's just that guile that allowed him to succeed for as many years as he did. His daughter had come forward and said that he had molested her when she was growing up," Clark said.

"He remains a threat'

As long as Sypnier "can walk and talk, he remains a threat," Clark said.

The Rev. Terry King, who runs Saving Grace halfway house in the 1900 block of Bailey Avenue, reluctantly allowed Sypnier to stay there temporarily.

"As a father, I would not want my child anywhere near him," King said.

New York does have a civil confinement law that allows the state to confine a sex offender who has completed his sentence if he has an abnormality that makes him likely to commit more sex crimes. But Sypnier was ruled ineligible for lifetime civil confinement, state officials told The Buffalo News.

King met Sypnier in 2007 when he was first released from prison, after serving an eight-year sentence on his plea deal conviction involving the two sisters.

Sypnier, King said, was stubborn and rebellious in maintaining he was innocent, despite confessing to authorities. He moved out of Grace House after he found an apartment in the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood.

By July 30, 2008, Sypnier was back in prison for violating parole with his refusal to attend sex-offender counseling classes.

And though he is now complying with parole mandates, Sypnier still insists he should not have to attend classes.

"I shouldn't have to go to school; that's for young people," he said during an interview at the halfway house.

King says he did not want to provide Sypnier with a room this time around, and only did so because he would have been sent to the Buffalo City Mission, where he would have been unsupervised for several hours a day.

On parole until May 2012

"It was for the good of the community that we allowed him to come here temporarily while he is placed into independent living," King said. "We didn't want him wandering around unsupervised. There are strict guidelines here."

By the end of the month, Sypnier says, he will have a furnished apartment somewhere on the East Side. King says Sypnier's release could happen within a week.

State parole officials say they will closely monitor Sypnier, who remains under their jurisdiction until May 16, 2012. "He's someone you truly don't want wandering around Buffalo. Not just Buffalo — anywhere," King said.

Sypnier, a retired telephone company worker, says he now plans to hire an attorney to get him off supervision by parole officers. He contends that parole was never mentioned in the second plea deal he accepted in 2004, after winning an appeal on his 2000 plea-deal conviction to multiple charges of sex crimes committed against the sisters, who were 4 and 7 years old.

He won the appeal on the grounds that he was "confused" at the time he accepted the plea deal. But rather than go to trial after his legal victory, Sypnier chose to plead guilty to one count of attempted sodomy.

The Town of Tonawanda case is not the first time he has been punished for molesting children. In 1994, he completed a one-year jail sentence for sexually abusing a minor, and in 1987, he served three years on probation for a sex-abuse conviction.

At 5-feet-5 and 145 pounds, with wisps of white hair and blue eyes, the bespectacled Sypnier brushes aside all of the criminal complaints against him from over the years.

"They were all single mothers with children and wanted my money," he said. "They were blackmailing me, threatening me with jail if I didn't give them money."

Required to register

What about the molestation complaint from one of his three daughters?

"I worked two jobs when I was raising my family and never had time to screw around with children," said Sypnier, who with his late wife raised five children on Royal Avenue in Riverside.

If he succeeds in getting out of parole, Sypnier says, he would no longer be under the mandate barring him from contact with children, and he then could attempt to see his five great-grandchildren.

"I'll tell them I never harmed any children," he said, adding that if his legal plans to end parole fail, he will be done with parole in two years anyway. "I'll be free in 2012."

Living on monthly Social Security and pension checks, he will not be entirely free of the law whenever his parole ends.

"After 2012, we will no longer be supervising him," said Heather R. Groll, spokeswoman for the state's Division of Parole, "but he will still be required to register as a sex offender, and his address will be publicly available online 24 hours a day."

NOTE: truly, a monster! Lon

The Ring

Posted: 08 Dec 2009 07:11 AM PST

This is a very strange story. I think of it often and always fill with that fear one feels when experiencing one of those "close calls" in life.

I was 23 at the time. I was married and had a three year-old son. I was just a young woman like any other. I stayed home with my child, took care of my little apartment and worked part-time from home doing assorted little boring jobs. One night after dinner I received a call from my older sister. She wanted me to go shopping with her at the big department store in town. My husband was home looking after my son and so I decided to go. I was happy to get away for a little shopping time with my sister. I quickly combed my wild, messy hair and slipped on my shoes then waited at the door for my sister's car horn to sound.

My sister and I shopped all over the big store. We both bought a blouse and wandered around looking at everything else the store offered. My sister wandered off to purchase her favorite perfume. I walked over to the next department which was fine jewelry. I had--and still do have--a weakness for rings. At that point in my life, I owned only a few very nice rings. My parents had given me a beautiful birthstone when I turned 18 and, of course, I had my wedding ring. My wedding ring consisted of a wide gold band with a twisted line of small diamonds across the face of it. On the inside of the ring was engraved my wedding date. It was a nice ring but not a unique or expensive ring. There were other rings around at the time similar to mine.

I started to look at all the beautiful jewelry and I especially noticed the rings. I had always wanted a big diamond ring and loved just looking at them and dreaming of the day I might own one. The store was pretty quiet while we were there. Very few other customers were in the store that night. The sales lady was leaning against the glass case of rings, watching me as I carefully looked at all the diamonds and bands. She walked over and asked if I wanted to see any of them. I told her I was just looking. She mentioned a 75 % off sale on two of the diamond rings and said, "Here, let me show you the two on this incredible markdown." Not being strong enough to say no, I let her take out a velvet-covered board of rings and hand me the two discounted rings to try on.

The rings were beautiful. I slid off my wedding band, laid it down on the velvet board right in front of me and slid both rings onto my left hand. Oh, how beautiful both of the rings looked! I wanted to simply tell her to "wrap one up" and then waltz home with the big beautiful diamond ring in the department store bag. I looked at my hand longingly, then removed the rings, handed them back to the sales lady, picked up my wedding ring, and then placed my ring back on my left hand.

My sister called from the next counter. I thanked the woman who had shown me the rings and then headed toward my sister. The only other thing we did that night was stop at the local ice cream shop where my sister treated us both to a double-scoop ice cream cone.

The next morning I woke up late. I could hear my son talking to my mother in the living room. I lifted myself from the bed to find I had a violent headache. I walked into the living room to find my son had let my mother into the house. We lived in an apartment at the time built onto my parents' home. My mom often came in and out during the day. My mother said to me on this day, "It's 10:30. Are you all right? You look awful. Didn't you know the baby was awake and walking around the house?" My son then added, "I was calling you, Mommy." I had not heard my son, could not believe I had slept that late, and my head felt as if it were breaking in half--the pain was so intense. Before I could respond to my mother, I turned, ran down the hall and became sick. Sick was actually being modest. I vomited so much I thought I would turn inside out.

My mother stayed with me all day. I laid in my bed unable to stand, walk, eat or drink. I just wanted this unbelievable sickness to end.

Eventually, my husband came home. His plan for dealing with the situation was to take my son to my parents' house and send my mom back to cope with me. My mom sat with me all night. By morning I was no better. I still could not stand or even drink. My mother and father insisted that my husband take me to the hospital emergency room as my flesh was turning a sort of blue-green tone.

I spent that day in the hospital. It seemed to be a virus or maybe food poisoning. I just wanted to get better. After two more days in the hospital, I was allowed to return home. I was still very ill. I could eat a bit and walk when helped but I still needed to spend almost all of my day in bed. My family was very concerned. I needed someone with me at all times as my balance was off and I fell twice. I was extremely ill. One night my husband was feeding my son. I was lying on the couch in the living room listening to them talk while he coaxed my son into taking bites of his grilled cheese sandwich. As I laid there my hands began to throb very painfully. I twisted my wedding ring, trying to ease the discomfort, and then decided to take it off completely. My hand hurt so much even the ring was too painful to keep on. I slid the ring off my finger and placed it on the coffee table in front of me.

As I laid my head back down on the couch pillow, I became eye level with the coffee table. It gave me a different and very clear view of my ring. I just kept looking at my ring. It looked funny to me. I pushed myself up and grabbed my ring to inspect it more carefully. I felt a chill run down my spine as I held it in front of my eyes. This ring--the ring that had been on my finger since I left that department store--was not my ring at all. I held it up toward the light and looked inside the band. There I found three strange symbols engraved into the gold. It was 24k gold and thicker than my wedding ring. This ring looked very much like my own as it had a similar, almost identical twist of diamonds on its face but it was, without question, NOT MY RING!

I knew in my soul that this ring was the reason I was so ill. I called my husband and showed him the ring. He looked and asked what I did with my wedding band. I told him over and over everything that happened at the department store. I could see he was shaken and confused. I also noticed that almost immediately, after removing the ring, I started to feel better.

I called my parents and asked them to come over. I told them the entire shopping trip story and showed them this strange ring. It made me very uneasy to realize my wedding band was gone and I had been walking around wearing this strange ring.

My dad called the department store. He asked them not if they had found a wedding band, but if they were missing one. The jewelry store manager told him everything was in order and nothing was missing. My dad then asked if he could ask the saleslady, on duty the night of our shopping trip, if anything odd had occurred during her shift. My father's face turned white as he listened on the phone to the jewelry manager's reply. My dad hung up the phone and turned to us and said, "The manager just told me there wasn't any sales lady on duty in the jewelry department that night. The regular lady called in ill so they posted three large signs to go to the front desk for help in that department that night." My mother called my sister who lived only a few blocks away and asked her to come over for a few minutes. My father picked up the ring and placed it inside a plastic bag and sat it on the table next to the front door. I was now able to sit up and so my mother prepared some soup for me. My husband sat there stunned in the aftermath of this bizarre revelation.

My sister came over with her husband and we repeated the entire story to them. She walked over, looked at the ring, and said, "This isn't your ring." And she added, "There were no signs in the jewelry department--just that old woman standing there who insisted on showing you the rings". We all just looked at one another. As I sat eating my soup, my father said to my husband and my sister's husband, "Go get a shovel. We're going for a ride." My dad, my husband and my brother-in-law all jumped into my dad's truck, with the ring in the plastic bag, and took off down the road. They were gone for about two hours. When they returned, my husband told me they had driven far away to a deserted wooded area and then buried the ring with a wooden cross my dad made from wood in the truck. They even stopped at our pastor's house and had the wooden cross blessed on the way to bury the ring. Once far enough into the woods, they dug a deep hole and then placed the ring, still inside the bag, into the hole with the cross on top of it. They then buried all of it together.

I woke up the next day and felt almost completely well. I was very frightened by this experience. That fear would last for years. I had no idea how I ended up with that ring. I had no idea why anyone would want my cheaper ring. Most of all, I was terrified by the realization that somebody's "imposter" ring seemed to make me so deathly ill.

We talked often about this strange event. It was an odd happening that did not seem to belong in my simple, ordinary life. It could have been a coincidence--the ring and my illness. None of us could explain why someone had exchanged my cheap ring for the more expensive one. Who would do this? Why would anyone want to do this--and how did they pull it off without my knowledge? To this day these questions remain unanswered. I do know I became a more careful observer of both people and places from that point forward. I also refused to go back to that department store ever again.

This event made me realize at a young age that this world is full of strange unexplained events that we all need to be aware of. I have had other odd events during my life where I have found odd objects in my pocketbook, in my cars , even inside my home. I became ill a few times before I discovered them and always recovered once we removed them.

Always be aware of your surroundings and what is and is not normal to your life. If you too find something strange or amiss in your life- take action! You do not want to walk down the road of the unknown - it can be a lonely place.

Thanks to Chris Holly at Chris Holly's Paranormal World

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Anomalist Books - works on maverick science, unexplained mysteries, unorthodox theories, strange talents, and unexpected discoveries. Please check out their excellent and diverse catalog

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