Casper poses a spooky problem for shopkeeper.
By Tom Halstead.
When there’s something strange in your neighbourhood, who ya’ gonna call? Ghostbusters! And that’s precisely what the Weekly News did to help Fleetwood shopkeeper Pat Vickery, who is trying to get to the bottom of a creepy conundrum at her premises in Lord Street. Objects unexpectedly flying off shelves every few days have become a matter of course over the past 18 months for Pat, who told the Weekly News she had nicknamed her poltergeist Casper.
Fortunately, Fleetwood has its very own paranormal investigator on the doorstep. Stuart Leadbetter of Beach Road, a member of a ghost-hunting group, was happy to lend his expertise. But after he had visited the town’s spook centre, it was still hard to come to firm conclusions. “Some of the incidents could have normal explanations,” said Stuart. But he added that such activity can be caused by alterations to a building, and just before the strange happenings began Pat had installed some new display boards all round the shop and put in a new cigarette counter.
However, Stuart was excited by the news that Pat may be getting the system upgraded with more video recording. “Then she could get some interesting results,” said Stuart who, by day, is a TVR car worker. “The first few times things happened she tried to explain them rationally, but she couldn’t do. But she was happy for it to stay. She said it was part of the shop. A lot of people are nervous of this sort of thing so I found her attitude very refreshing.”
Almost every other day there is an incident of some kind with boxes leaving their shelves. “There’s just no logical explanation,” said Pat. “But things happen quite regularly. We call him Caspar and if we start talking about him, that sometimes seems to make things happen – also if people are talking about graveyards.”
The most convincing evidence of the paranormal for Mrs Vickery was a small item of jewellery on display in the shop window which flew up and over other items and hit her foot. “I’m not worried about it, it’s an interesting conversation item. But if it ever got nasty, I would have to do something about it.”
Fleetwood Weekly News, 19th February 2003.