Wanna-Be Ghost Hunter Arrests Are On A Rise Nationwide For Trespassing In Abandoned Haunted Places… Get The
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Monday, September 24th, 2012
Article By: Phillip Brunelle
www.HauntedSociety.com
U.S. NATIONAL NEWS — Recently, we reported on Ohio University’s plans to demolish a historical building, whose reason for the demolition is because of the local folklore and claims of paranormal activity attracting thrill seeking students and ghost hunters to trespass, break in, and even vandalize the former tuberculosis ward for the old state hospital.
After digging further, Haunted Society discovered that break-ins and trespassing reports related to haunted places have been at an all-time-high, nationwide, and with the 2012 Halloween season approaching, police are warning people that plan to investigate haunted places without permission, legal action will be taken.
In the past few years, campus police at Ohio University have arrested 55 people for trespassing and breaking and entering into the haunted Ridges Building 26. These arrests were all from curious people and wanna-be ghost hunters that trespassed and broke into the allegedly haunted building, some of whom even vandalized the property to gain access. Similar incidents have been surfacing nationwide, and it’s starting to give true paranormal investigators a negative reputation.
In the past month, over 200 police reports and arrests have been made for people who trespassed and broke into allegedly haunted places, including abandoned buildings, private property, and businesses currently in operation. A few weeks ago, in Trenton, Michigan two teens were arrested for trespassing at the old Riverside Osteopathic Hospital. The teens told police that they heard the abandoned hospital was haunted, and they were inside ghost hunting.
As paranormal investigators know, you should always get permission to investigate any place, whether it’s private property, abandoned, and most public places, but sometimes getting permission is not enough.
A federal lawsuit was filed this month by a woman who was falsely arrested for trespassing at an abandoned house, which she was given permission to investigate. Diane Briscoe and her sons, Jonathan and Alton, were conducting a paranormal investigation inside a house in Upland, Pennsylvania in September 2010 when police officers barged in. “They held guns to us, and even though we told them we had permission to be there, showed them the key and gave the officers the owner’s name and phone number, they still arrested us” said Diane Briscoe.
When she’s not ghost hunting, Diane Briscoe is employed as a police officer with the Chester, PA Police Department, but this too was not enough to stop the Upland police officers from arresting Diane Briscoe and her two children for trespassing.
The charges against Diane Briscoe and her children were dismissed after she was able to prove that she was given permission to investigate the reportedly haunted, abandoned house, and now she has filed a federal lawsuit against the Upland police officers for false arrest and emotional torment for holding her and the children at gunpoint.
This is a perfect example that sometimes having permission isn’t enough, and for this reason, Haunted Society suggests that ghost hunters should always first get permission to investigate a haunted place, and after you’ve got permission to investigate, if it’s an abandoned location, you should always notify the local police about the investigation. This way, the police officers that normally patrol the area where the place is located will expect to see activity that night.
Could all the hype with paranormal and ghost hunting television shows be playing a part in this increased interest in ghost hunting? We talked to Alice Newgen, from Ellijay, GA, a columnist with Chatsworth Times, and she certainly thinks so. “I feel that part of the problem is with so many radio and TV shows highlighting the paranormal it’s becoming more acceptable to be a ghost hunter” said Alice Newgen. “People need to be more careful, their actions could quite literally come back to haunt them… in more ways than one.”
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