I was woken up by a very interesting call. Usually clients contact me by phone since I have a few signs hanging up around town. The signs seem to cause me more trouble than they are worth. Lately I have been getting what I assume are prank calls. The phone will ring every Tuesday at exactly six o-nine pm. When I pick up all I hear is heavy breathing and a small child like voice asking me for help. I was worried someone was in danger and told one of my police friends. He just suggested it's a prank call from one of the local teens. Whoever is doing this is very dedicated, I have been getting these calls for the past two months. It's getting rather annoying. I even considered changing my phone number but that would be too much of a hassle.

Anyways back to the call that I got that morning. I was making my usual cup of coffee when my landline started ringing. I picked up my ugly outdated phone and answered. I was surprised to hear a cheery voice on the other line as it was only seven am. I wondered how someone could be happy this early in the morning. The seemingly happy caller rambled on about his house being haunted. He said that he was hearing weird noises and he noticed that his things have gone missing. I suggested that it was someone else in the house but he said he lived alone. We settled on a time that we could meet and I ended the call.

Cases like this could be anything from a ghost to a wild animal living in the attic. I was sceptical on whether I should waste my time on this case. The man could just be forgetful or paranoid.

The next day I went to meet the man who called. I met him at his house per his request. As I parked my car in the driveway the man exited his house and waved at me from his porch. He looked just as I pictured. He was a small balding man with rosy cheeks and a yellow smile. He looked like an off brand Santa Clause that would give a small child nightmares. I approached the man and shook his hand.

“Hello, I’m Louis Hilton,” he said, greeting me with a warm smile.

“Michael Sawyer, but just call me Sawyer.”

“Alright Sawyer come on in!” said Louis walking inside.

I followed him. It was a nice simple house, better than some other places I have been. “So..can you tell me some more details about what has been going on?”

Louis sighed and looked down at his rather chubby fingers.

“Well I think my house is haunted. When I am in bed I can hear something running around, and then the next day something is missing!” he said obviously worried.

“Okay, well I usually try to get footage or evidence if there's a ghost.”I continued to tell the anxious homeowner about how I put up cameras and review the footage the next morning. I set up my cameras and left Mr. Hilton’s house.

I went back to Mr. Hilton’s and reviewed the camera footage from the previous night. Mr. Hilton wasn’t home so he left the back door open. I entered the house and gathered my cameras. Then I...well it's a fairly long process and I doubt you want to hear about it. Once I got the videos on my computer I sifted through hours of footage. And what I discovered was surprising to say the least. From the moment I got that call I knew something was strange. Ghosts don’t just pop out of nowhere, and I checked the records of the house. No one has died on the premises and it doesn’t have a history of being sacred land. When Mr. Hilton arrived back at his house I showed him what the cameras caught. The video showed a dark figure emerging from a door, walking through the hallways, heading towards the kitchen then heading back.

“It’s a ghost I knew it!” shouted Mr. Hilton.

“No,” I said plainly, pointing at my computer screen. My finger pointed to what the figure had in their hand, a yogurt. “That is a human.”

“What!” said Mr.Hilton filled with shock.

“I suggest you contact the police, my job here is done.” I stated walking out of the house.

As you can see not all cases are what they appear to be. Most “ghosts” are usually just people's vivid imaginations or cruel pranks. It seems that i haven’t gotten a real paranormal case in a while. The last case I had turned out to be a pack of rabid raccoons. This ended with me being stuck in a tree on the phone with animal control. Not everything is what it seems.

I haven’t had any cases since the “ghost” that resided in Louis Hilton’s house. The police found that the man had been living in the crawl space of Louis’s home for around two weeks. This explains all the stuff that Mr. Hilton described. As of today, Mr. Hilton has still not paid me for my services. The amount of money in my bank account is down to triple digits. My lack of money has caused me to spend most of my time at my apartment. I use this tactic to avoid wasting money on useless things that I can’t afford.