The following news items are collected from Coast 2 Coast AM, that venerable radio show about everything from the paranormal to politics. This is their compilation of the "spookiest" ghost stories of 2021.
'Ghost Pants' Caught on Film?
A truly bizarre piece of footage circulating online appears to show a pair of pants running down a sidewalk seemingly without anyone wearing them! The very weird video was posted to YouTube by the paranormal channel Hidden Underbelly, which noted that the circumstances surrounding the strange scene are unfortunately unknown, although the setting would appear to suggest that it took place outside of the United States. The lack of details notwithstanding, the footage is undeniably odd and rather hard to decipher.
In the all-too-brief footage, a young child can be seen playing with a rabbit in the middle of a desolate road at night. Suddenly, out of the corner of the screen, a pair of pants can be seen dashing down the sidewalk before disappearing into the shadows. Eerily, features of the building in the background that should be obscured by an upper torso of the 'being,' for lack of a better term, are clearly visible, suggesting that the baffling sight is not merely a trick of light and shadow.
As for what, exactly, was captured on the video, some viewers have suggested that the 'ghost pants' were connected to some kind of spirit while others have posited, perhaps jokingly, that it is an invisible person who forgot to put on a shirt. Others have likened the notorious cryptid known as the 'Fresno Nightcrawler.' And, of course, more skeptical observers have put forward the prosaic explanation that the scene is somehow the result of a camera error or, failing that, simply a clever hoax.
Ghost Removes Collar From Dog's Neck
An eerie home security video that has gone viral online shows a dog's collar inexplicably being removed by an invisible force that many viewers suspect could be a ghost. The unsettling footage was posted to TikTok by shannyfantg on Sunday and has amassed a staggering 12.5 million views since being shared on the site. The spooky video begins with her two crated dogs furiously barking for around 20 seconds until they both fall silent for no seemingly apparent reason before things take a truly strange turn.
The pair of pooches remain completely still for approximately twenty seconds, during which it appears that the footage briefly freezes, until the collar around the black dog's neck begins to slightly move. Suddenly, the unfortunate animal is violently pulled towards the corner of its crate until the collar falls from its neck. As one might imagine, many of the millions of viewers believe that a ghost is to blame for the peculiar scene.
For her part, shannyfantg echoed that assessment, arguing that some kind of spirit removed the collar from her dog and indicated that "this happened about a year after moving into this house, nothing happened for almost two years, now things are happening again." Meanwhile, skeptical observers argue that the footage could be a clever fabrication using CGI.
Jogger Encounters Ghost Sitting on Bench at Haunted Park in Singapore
A woman out for a jog at a purportedly haunted park in Singapore encountered an eerie figure sitting on a bench and some suspect that the mysterious stranger may have been a ghost. The eerie incident reportedly took place at around 9:40 in the evening this past Sunday as Nur Umairah was running through the Pasir Ris Park, where local legend states that vampiric female spirits, known as pontianaks, reside. Although it initially seemed that the area was deserted, the jogger was taken aback when she noticed what appeared to be a woman sitting on a bench staring out at the water of the nearby Api Api River.
The strange sight was particularly perplexing to Umairah because it was pitch black where the stranger was located. Although she assumed the curious individual was merely another visitor to the park, despite the late hour and weird behavior, the jogger decided to snap a quick photo (which can be seen below) of the person. Upon resuming her run, Umairah says, she suddenly began hearing a voice that was saying "Mai," which is the shortened form of her name.
This understandably unnerved Umairah recalled that "I had goosebumps and the hair at the back of my neck stood." As to the source of the voice, she mused that "I know it wasn't a human because there was no one else around." Now considerably frightened by what she was experiencing, Umairah phoned her husband in order to have some sense of comfort and distraction from the situation, while also reciting prayers in her head in the hopes of warding off whatever sinister force she may have encountered.
Fortunately, Umairah made it home safely and subsequently uploaded the picture to social media. Adding one final layer of creepiness to the entire affair, friends who looked at the image noted something rather strange about it: the woman's legs could not be seen. Coupled with the location's reputation as a haunted hot spot, it has been suggested that the mysterious stranger sitting on the bench may have been a pontianak or perhaps some other kind of ghost.
Ohio Cop Encounters Ghost Girl
In an odd story out of Ohio, a police officer may have encountered a ghost as he was responding to a report of a seemingly out-of-place little girl wandering around late in the evening. According to a local media report, people living in the city of Mentor have been captivated on social media over the last few weeks as multiple residents have shared home security camera footage of an anomalous white form that could be seen quickly traveling along a sidewalk. As one might imagine, speculation in the community has centered around whether or not it was an apparition and, it would seem, an appearance by the curious figure ultimately wound up prompting a call to the police, but their investigation only made matters all the more mysterious.
A concerned resident phoned the Mentor Police Department back on March 10th at around 11:40 PM with a rather weird report. "I was surprised by what I saw," they said," explaining that they noticed a person near an area elementary school who resembled a small girl, but was "running rather erect and too quickly for a child." Eerily, when cops arrived on the scene to investigate, one officer actually saw a youngster matching the description provided by the puzzled caller. However, when he exited his patrol car to tend to the tot, the child was gone. Certain of what he had seen, the cop continued looking for the little girl, but she was nowhere to be found.
To their credit, the Mentor Police Department took the matter very seriously and enlisted the help of several other officers as well as a K9 unit and even a drone to search the area looking for the child, but the exhaustive effort proved futile. Chillingly, when the cop who had originally seen the little girl went back and checked his dashcam video from the encounter, the youngster did not appear on the footage. The perplexing incident would appear to bolster the belief of some residents that there is a ghost child roaming the streets of the city, however other people in Mentor are not as convinced, insisting that the apparition is merely the case of mistaken identity or perhaps the work of a prankster.
Haunted' Doll Terrifies Australian Town
Residents of a small town in Australia say that their community is plagued by an unsettling presence in the form of a haunted doll that brings bad luck to those who get too close to it. The eerie object, which can be seen below, reportedly sits on a swing located in a mangrove swamp in the tiny town of Lucinda. Among the mere 406 people living in the community, tales about the creepy doll and its unnerving 'powers' have spread by way of whispers from residents seemingly afraid of 'upsetting' the odd object.
Parliamentarian Nick Dametto, who represents Lucinda and several other nearby towns, indicated that "everyone seems to know about the doll, but nobody really wants to talk about it." Be that as it may, local legend states that anyone who comes too close to the object winds up suffering some sort of bad luck. The most frequent 'victims' of the doll, Dametto said, are people who are boating or fishing in the nearby waters and it is claimed that even saying "hello" to the object can unleash its ire.
"This might be pure circumstance or just a modern wives' tale," Dametto mused, "but it's something I'm definitely not willing to toy with." Although the origins of the doll appear to be shrouded in mystery, one business owner in Lucinda claims that the 'little girl' and her swing were created by a local couple as something of an art installation with the goal of adding some color to the community. Should that be the case, their mission has proven to be a strange success as the town has now become infamous for being the home of a haunted doll that curses anyone who dares go near it.
Ghost Pulls Girl Under Bed
An unsettling piece of footage circulating online shows what appears to be a little girl being pulled under her bed by an unseen force as she cries out to her mother for help. The chilling incident reportedly occurred this past Sunday evening just before midnight and the video was subsequently shared on TikTok the next day by the toddler's dad, Josh Dean. In captioning the post, the unnerved father simply wrote "my daughter being pulled under the bed ... wife thinks she crawled, but she was pulled by something."
In the truly creepy footage, the youngster can be seen clambering off of her bed and looking underneath it as if something had drawn her attention. She then begins to slowly disappear under the bed while bellowing "mommy" over and over again in a moment that is pure nightmare fuel. The girl can then be heard wailing from beneath the bed until her mother comes into the room and lifts the furniture up to free her.
Unsurprisingly, the eerie video quickly went viral, amassing nearly a million views in just a few days. In an update posted by the girl's mother a few days later, she insisted that the incident was not staged and conceded that "I can't explain it." She went on to explain that she had initially thought that her daughter had simply crawled under the bed and gotten stuck, but seeing the footage made her suspect that perhaps something paranormal had taken place.
Ship's Security Camera Films Ghost
An eerie piece of footage purportedly captured by a ship's security camera shows what appears to be a full-bodied apparition manifest out of thin air. The rather fantastic video was posted to Reddit last week by an individual who explained that the incident occurred while he was working aboard a vessel that was sailing near the coast of Somalia. As a preventative measure to avoid drawing the attention of pirates, he explained, the lights on the ship were turned off and all of the crew members were ordered to stay in their rooms.
During that brief period in which the ship was devoid of activity, the security camera aboard the vessel spotted something truly strange. The jaw-dropping video initially shows an empty room aboard the ship and then a rather bright orb whisks passing through the scene. Shortly thereafter, a mist-like substance wafts towards a spot in the room where what appears to be a full-bodied figure slowly manifests. The startling anomaly stands in the location for a few seconds before simply dissolving.
As one might imagine, many viewers believe that the oddity seen in the footage is some kind of spirit, perhaps a ghost that resides on the ship and made a brief appearance during the lockdown in a curious attempt to find out why the vessel had gone quiet. More skeptical observers will, of course, argue that the 'apparition' is merely some kind of video artifact or, failing that, a hoax with a well-crafted backstory attached to it.
Colombian Mayor Shares Video of Ghost Attacking Security Guard
The mayor of a city in Colombia left his constituents scratching their heads when he shared a video of what he claims is a ghost attacking a security guard. The peculiar footage, which was reportedly captured by a security camera in a government office building, was posted to Facebook on Tuesday evening by Jose Manuel Rios Morales, who presides over the community of Armenia. In the odd video, a guard can be seen walking down a hallway before seemingly being violently thrown into a wall by an unseen force. The startled man falls to the floor and then slowly crawls away from the point of impact until two of his coworkers quickly arrive on the scene.
In the surprising Facebook post, Morales wrote "I want to share this video with you today, stressing that as mayor I have the conviction that faith has unbeatable power." He goes on to assure residents that, upon learning of the eerie incident, he enlisted a bishop and other religious figures in the city to bless "every corner of this workspace" and asked his social media followers to join in a prayer to help ward off whatever sinister spirit struck the security guard. Alas, it would seem that his constituents were not as concerned about the potential ghost haunting the building as he might have imagined as many of the comments dismissed the entire affair as foolish and a waste of government resources.