October always puts us in a spooky mood. In honor of my favorite holiday, this post is related to all things creepy in Lakeland. Supposedly, there is a notorious haunted house in Lakeland. Subject to creepy happenings, the owners posted footage of their home and the ghostly encounters on Youtube. You can access the video here if you’re brave enough or just trying to disprove the haunting. A private residence in Lakeland was investigated by Ghost Hunters of Scientific Theory (G.H.O.S.T.) and was concluded as haunted. The homeowner claimed feelings of being watched, hearing voices, and seeing full body apparitions. The team concluded the house as haunted. You can retrieve the full file online here, but here are some creepy EVP’s the G.H.O.S.T. team pulled for us to listen to. We’re watching you This EVP was captured by the recorder in the TV room about 20 minutes into the investigation. Around this time, Ben noticed that the digital recorder wasn’t recording. About six seconds after he pressed the button to start recording, a voice very audibly (though unheard at the time) says what sounds like “We’re watching you.” Ghost breathing Like the clips above, this clip was caught by the recorder in the dining room and features what sounds like to us a very pronounced breath. No one was in the dining room when this clip was captured. Get back This clip was captured in the TV room about 32 minutes in while Ben, Kristi and Jesse were still investigating in there. Ben had left the room to get a certain EMF detector, unaware that it was in the TV room with him. As he leaves the room, a light voice seems to say something along the lines of “Go [or Get] back.” Of course, it is well known in Lakeland of the hauntings on the campus of Florida Southern College. Ghosts haunt most of the older residence halls, especially the freshman girls’ halls. Several accounts have been posted about janitors feeling the presence of foreign bodies in the halls, the laughter of a small child coming from the hallways, or the sound of balls bouncing up and down the hallway. The Buckner Theater on campus is no exception. The theater is very warm and welcoming in the daylight or during a stage performance, but become alone in the theater, and all sorts of strange things begin happening. One student claims to have seen legs walking around on the catwalk, but without a body to claim them. Others have heard screams, music, and some have complained of doors shutting randomly. The haunts might not be explained, but there is enough reason to keep me out of the theater in the middle of the night. The tunnels are some of the most well-known attractions on campus. Although they are closed from public viewing now, the tunnels go under the entire campus of Florida Southern College. You can see the air vents in areas around Edge Hall and the Hindu Gardens. There is footage of the tunnels posted on Youtube, but don’t believe everything you find online. And no ghost post could be complete without a personal testimony! Being a female student at FSC, I lived in Joseph-Reynolds Hall my freshman year and I had my own encounters with our resident ghost, Allan Spivey. Allan was the son of Mr. Spivey, a well-known figure on campus. At a young age, contrary to other stories, he was bitten by a rabid dog, causing him to die a slow and painful death. Stories tell that he passed in JR back before it became the freshman girls’ residence hall, but the truth behind that statement is unknown. Regardless, Allan passed and his presence continues to haunt the halls of JR. I lived on the third floor in a room previously used as a storage unit. Upon my roommate and I’s arrival, weird things started happening in our room. Our DVD player would turn on and off subtitles randomly, even though my remote was sitting on my desk, untouched. No matter what decoration we hung on the wall or what we hung it with, it was only a matter of days before it was torn off the wall, without anyone touching it (this happened several times while I was alone. Posters would be thrown at me from across the room where they were hung.) He would also walk around on our wooden furniture, making creaking footsteps as he moved around. He also liked to bang on our windows as we slept or when we had friends over. But every time we asked, “Allan, we don’t want to play right now," the subtitles would turn off, posters would stop being torn down, furniture would stop creaking, the banging on the windows would cease. After we moved to another room the second semester to trade with a friend who wanted a bigger room, we never heard from Allan again. Coincidence? I think not. So this Halloween, there is no need to try and find the scariest movie possible. Just look around Lakeland for some free haunts. You never know what you may find, or what may find you.
