A ghostly investigation of paranormal activity at an Atlantic City landmark was defeated by a timeless reality of living at the New Jersey shore.
In an episode of the Syfy channel series "Ghost Hunters" Wednesday night, the team from The Atlantic Paranormal Society said a violent northeast storm off the Atlantic Ocean during the night the it spent in the Absecon Lighthouse hindered the team's ability to tell if the 153-year-old structure was haunted.
While the TAPS team did detect at least one incident it couldn't explain, the investigators said the high winds and messy weather made impossible to tell if noises in the lighthouse were because of weather or otherworldy activity.
"It was a tough night," TAPS founder Jason Hawes admitted during the "reveal" at the end of the investigation. Hawes said the TAPS team would like to return to the lighthouse someday to repeat the probe.
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Stephanie Carr, the lighthouse's director of education programs, had contacted "Ghost Hunters" in hopes the TAPS team would investigate reports of strange noises and ghostly visions at the historic structure.
The team conducted its investigation in December, with a violent northeast storm raging outside. The storm led investigators to conclude that people who reported hearing ghostly footsteps climbing the lighthouse's 228 steps might actually have been hearing loose windows rattling in their frames.
The investigators also found that noises, which when heard at the bottom of the lighthouse sounded like conversation, at the top actually sounded like blowing wind.
"There's a lot here that can explain away the footsteps and sounds of conversations," Investigator Grant Wilson said.
Other phenomena was not so easy to dismiss. At one point in the program, Wilson and Hawes call on any spirits in the lighthouse "if you are here with us, say something as loud as you possibly can." The pair then suddenly hear a noise that they agree "sounds like conversation."
At another point, a camera set up at the top of the lighthouse staircase unexplainably moved and what looked like a shadow was seen flitting across the lighthouse wall.
Earlier in the investigation, a lighthouse volunteer recounted how he had once seen a ghostly hand clutching the railing at that section of staircase.
While the TAPS team complained several times during the episode about how the weather was hindering their investigation, team members weren't above using the weather to try to coax any spirits that might be occupying the light into activity. At one point, investigators Kris Williams and Amy Bruni point out that there's a bad storm outside and chide any spirits listening "you're not manning your post."
Contact Steven V. Cronin:
609-272-7242
Watch the show online
The "Ghost Hunters" "Phantoms of New Jersey" episode will be available for viewing online next Thursday at
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