"Haunted Town" - Alexandria, LA
The Hotel Bentley, Finnigan's Wake Tavern, The Diamond Grill
The current team is: Jason Hawes, Grant Wilson, Steve Gonsalves, Dave Tango, Amy Bruni and Adam Berry (who was brought over from Ghost Hunters Academy).
The new opening credits play: it's shorter and only feature Jason and Grant. The graphics are much better and look a lot spookier than before.
At TAPS headquarters, Amy and the guys (Jason and Grant) sit in the ... what is this room? It only has a table and chairs, with a small TV mounted on the wall that has "TAPS" playing on it all the time. The walls are covered in magazine covers from the (really expensive) TAPS magazine. I've only ever seen them use this room for introductions to cases. Seems like a waste ...
ANYWAY.
Amy explains that the entire town of Alexandria, LA has called TAPS in to check out their downtown area. The Bentley Hotel was closed in 2004 but many people claim to have seen a male apparition on the third floor and think it might be the man that built the hotel back in the day. Finnigan's Wake Tavern was actually two buildings that were combined into one and, apparently, the owner of this tavern is so freaked out by the place that he won't go in there by himself. The Diamond Grill was a jewelry store before being turned into a restaurant; they have shadows that move around, serving trays and glasses that move/are thrown on their own.
Grant is pretty excited about the prospect. Even more so when Amy explains that the citizens would like them to reveal their findings at a town hall meeting!
Bill Hess, the city's official liaison (is that a thing?) meets with they guys outside the hotel. He explains that the town is worried all the paranormal activity will ruin their tourism (also, is that a real concern?), so they would love to see what TAPS can do for them. Bill takes them inside the building and introduces them to Richard, who is a "city spokesperson." WHAT? Do people get paid for these jobs?!
Richard talks about all the spooky crap that goes on here. There's a little girl that fell down the shaft of the elevator and now roams the mezzanine level. Shortly after the re-opening of the hotel a man fell over the railing and fell head-first to the floor - GRUESOME! There's children's voices and what appear to be the shadow-y shapes of children peering over the railing, which people have witnessed.
In one suit on the third floor, the guys are shown the room where Mr. Bentley lived - and died. People hear full on conversations in the room.
Across the street is Finnigan's Wake Tavern. Shannon is the (male) owner of the bar. At various points in history, the building housed a clothing store and an optometrist's office. The bar itself was brought in from an old brothel and glasses will move on their own accord. There's footsteps in the hall and stairway. Upstairs, in the store room there are "tremendous" bangs.
Down the street they go, to The Diamond Grill. Dana, the bartender, explains that a woman that worked in the old jewelry store (which became the restaurant) supposedly haunts the place. In the bar, there's a lot of activity with glass wear. Dana also notices shadows or even what she thinks are people out of the corner of her eyes.
The team will be in town for two days/nights, so they should be able to cover a lot. Steve shows the guys where all the equipment was set up. I adore Steve - he's very level-headed and calm. Normally, he pairs with Dave, who is just the most adorable little guy you will ever meet. He's got some great dead-pan humor. Everyone grabs some hand-held equipment and they're off!
Jason and Grant get started in The Diamond Grill. They head to the kitchen and right away, the EMF meter goes bonkers. They can actually feel the EMF's and note that this is right beneath the bar, where a lot of reported activity happens. OK, that's pretty good -maybe we can debunk some stuff? Then Jason sees something and -
COMMERCIALS!
Something moved and he goes after it. I don't think Grant saw it because he kinda looks over at the camera man. Jason gives up and is set to move on but then they BOTH hear a kitchen door. It's one of those swinging doors and it's moving. There's some weird ass noise and they both see something - Jason is pretty freaked out by it. He says it looked like a dark, black mass looking right at them. Grant hasn't seen any of this.
Over at the Tavern, Dave and Steve look into the situation with the bar. Steve experiment with the glasses; he wets a glass to see if that would make it move on it's own accord -nope. They tap the shelves and even try shaking the bar itself - nothing. Steve goes upstairs to stomps around and possibly get things moving - NOTHING. They decide to try and make contact since they can't debunk anything.
They set out a bottle and ask that who ever is with them to please move it. Nothing happens, though. Dave's a little annoyed and even asks: "What's your problem?"
Back at The Diamond Grill, Amy and the new guy Adam go back to the third floor. They want to catch the same thing that Jason saw and try to keep an ear out for any sounds. Checking the EMFs, Adam notices that they're high everywhere. Amy cuts him off and asks if he heard a voice. She heard a soft "huh." Amy is a little whatever for me but I'm kind of digging Adam. They both hear noises and follow them. It was a door. A very creaky door. That leads into some wicked creepy looking hallway. There's no breeze going on, so that's not what made it move.
On the second night, Jason and Grant and in the hotel. The lobby is very cold and the atmosphere is pretty heavy - Jason feels like his ears need to pop. They hear the sound of someone wheeling a cart - pretty specific, dude. When Grant asks if someone is with them, they hear a "yeah." I don't hear it but, that's cool. As they walk around, Jason sees a shadow move on the staircase. It's not anything to do with a trick of the light because the streets are closed down, so no one is driving! Ooooh! That's pretty good!
COMMERCIALS!
The guys go up the stairs to find out what they saw. As they investigate some rooms, they hear a "hello." Jason stops to give an interview and in mid-sentence both guys hear a forceful "No you don't." They stop and look around some more. It's getting hard for them to pin-point where all of this is coming from!
Steve and Dave go to the third floor, to look for Mr. Bentley. They call out to Mr. Bentley and hear a loud thump. This prompts Steve to ask if they are with Mr. Bentley and they get another thump but the activity is inconsistent. Steve proposes that it may not be Mr. Bentley.
Adam and Amy park it outside Mr. Bentley's room and set up some weird ass laser thing. It makes the room look like the matrix. Amy notes that it is wicked quiet then the laser pointer thing MOVES BY ITSELF.
COMMERCIALS!
They fuss around with it, trying to find a way that it might move on it's own. Adam is pretty sure that when they sat down and set down the recorder, it caused some vibrations that made it move. Fair enough.
Back to Dave and Steve. They ponder the mystery of the shadows in the lobby. Steve notes that the columns on the balcony are pretty reflective and if light is shined on them, it creates the illusion of a shadow-y head and shoulders. They move onto the staircase, checking to see if Dave will get tripped while walking up. He has no luck on the first go but when he challenges the ghost to trip him, he trips himself. Haha. Oh, you guys! Steve finds this to be hilarious and makes a good point: if someone is embarrassed by tripping themselves, they may blame it on a ghost, since it's a known story. Not bad!
Jason and Grant go back to the balcony, over-looking the lobby. Grant sees a light flash, below them. It happens a second time. It sort of looks like someone snapped a picture with the flash on!
COMMERCIALS!
They run down after it but there's nothing there. They figure out where it would have come from but there's no light source. As they look around, they hear some footsteps down a hall. Chasing after it, they find nothing and decide to pack it up.
The team (sans Jason and Grant, as per usual) sit in some sad looking hotel room and go through all the evidence. Amy finds a voice on a recording that's pretty loud. Dave finds a whisper, also from The Diamond Grill - sounds like "I'm sorry." Adam has found footage of Jason and Grant's light flash! Good job!
Everyone files in for the town meeting! The citizens give a cheerful round of applause and the guys are chuffed. It's adorable. On to the evidence! Starting at Finnigan's Wake Tavern, they explain that there were no personal experiences BUT they caught some great stuff. There's a recording of what sounds like a drinking song and another recording of a female voice. It's hard to tell what she says. Grant encourages the owner to feel safe in his establishment.
At The Diamond Grill, now! They show the footage of Amy talking where the voice speaks over her and Adam. The second voice recording is played and it sounds kind of like "Hey, Adam." Adam explains that he didn't hear it and didn't have the chance to respond. In the bar, they caught the "I'm sorry" voice. Grant points out that there's no emotional attachment to the voice because they have no context. But they explain that the restaurant has an intelligent haunting, since it's trying to interact with everyone.
Finally, The Bentley Hotel. Jason talks about seeing movement in the lobby and on the stairs. Then they show the footage of the light in the lobby - the citizens are impressed. Next is the recording of the footsteps - which is pretty loud. The citizens are even more impressed. Finally, they play the interview where the voice hollers "No you don't!" Grant thinks that there is something going on there. Jason wants to come back for a week! They guys confirm that the town has a lot of activity but it doesn't seem to be connected. The tavern owner is a lot more comfortable with going into his establishment now. The bartender at the restaurant is excited about talking back to anything that wants to interact with her.
All-in-all a very fun-filled and solid start to a new season!
No comments:
Post a Comment