Fear Files

NorthCoastie: Who Answered The Phone?

I am a 30 year old insurance adjuster who has both law enforcement and military experience. I have always believed in ghosts, and have always had an interest in "ghost stories," paranormal TV shows, etc., but until recently can't say I've had a definitive experience.

I was on my way to inspect an insurance claim in a big old Victorian house in New Castle, PA. As part of our protocol, we always call the homeowner when we are about a half hour away to make sure they remembered the appointment, will be ready for us, are home, etc. I had the home phone number and the cell phone number of our insured for this claim, and called the home phone first.

A very strange sounding voice answered. I could not tell if this person was a child, or a very old woman... It had this raspy, high pitched... Odd sounding voice. Do a google or Youtube search for Sophie Maslaw, former mayor of Pittsburgh, and you'll hear exactly the type of voice I'm referring to. There was a lot of static, and it was just weird.

Anyways, this voice on the other end sounded very confused and could barely hear me. We went back and forth with the "hello can you hear me?" "barely, can you hear me" "hello?" etc for about 30 seconds trying to communicate until I gave up. I thought we might have a bad connection, so I hung up and called back. This time the call went into voicemail, which was your standard "You have reached 7 2 4 3 3..." robot voicemail. I called the cell phone I had on file and received that voicemail as well.

When I arrived, there was nobody home. I knocked on the door several times, rang the doorbell, stood around for a few minutes, called both phones again and received voicemail, and started walking back to the car. As I'm getting in my car, the homeowner shows up. The homeowner is a normal speaking woman in her mid 30's. She apologizes that she missed my calls, and told me she was in a hair appointment. I told her that I had spoken to someone at her house on the landline but we had a hard time understanding each other. She got a very concerned look on her face, and tells me, "You must have called the wrong number because nobody else is home." So I look at my phone and recite back to her the number I called, which was, in fact, the correct number.

So we go into her home, and she looks at the Caller ID on her landline. Sure enough, my calls showed up on Caller ID. There were two missed calls for the times when I called and received the voicemail, and there was one received call. At this point, the homeowner breaks down. She tells me, "I have been telling my husband for months now, ever since we moved in, that this place is haunted and he doesn't believe me." She is so upset she is shaking, and had to leave the house. I explained to her that I don't know what happened, and all I know is I called and briefly spoke with someone. She thought maybe I called and got the voicemail and confused that for speaking with someone - but the voicemail clearly was not a strange voice saying "hello, can you hear me" repeatedly. The Caller ID also showed received calls vs missed calls, and the first call from my number was showing as a received call.

I asked her if maybe someone had broken into her house and if we should call the police. She did not want to do that, so I checked all the doors and windows and the house seemed secure. She also had a security system that she had to disarm when we entered, which had not gone off. The kids were at school, her husband was at work, and she claims nobody else would have any reason to go into her house during the day. She even called a few people to confirm nobody had been at the house.

At this point, I'm pretty freaked out. Of course the damage for her insurance claim was in the creepy-as-hell basement, where I had to go down by myself. Nothing else unusual happened, but when I left, the homeowner would still not go into the house by herself and told me she was going to her mother's for the rest of the day. She asked me repeatedly if her husband put me up to this, or if I really called the wrong number or think the lines were crossed. I just wanted to calm her down and told her the lines were probably crossed, but I have no idea if that is even possible anymore.

The bottom line is that I called this house and received a strange sounding person on the other end of the line when nobody was home. The Caller ID verified that I called the house at that time and the call was received, but nobody was there. The house was secure with an active security system. Also what made this strange was that the homeowner stated she had previous reason to believe the house was haunted. I never told her what the person on the other end of the phone sounded like. When I asked her why she thinks the house is haunted, she tells me that she has heard an old lady's voice talking in the house when nobody else was home.

This still isn't the definitive ghost experience I have been looking for, as I'm sure there are a variety of possibilities as to what could have happened... But this is enough to keep my interest alive.