TRICKS ON VIDEO
By Christina M. Schumacher

     State Center, Iowa is a small town in the Midwest boasting a population of approximately 1,200 people. The hub of the town is Main Street where you will see beautiful buildings with unique architecture that no modern building can match. Road Hogs, the local bar owned by Tracey and John Abate, is operated out of one of these old buildings - one that is more than likely over 100 years old - yet still standing tall and proud. It is at Road Hogs that this event takes place.
     Given the age of the building Road Hogs inhabits, it was no surprise to me when on May 9, 2006, Tracey called me on the phone to say that she and her husband had caught something really strange on their security camera. Knowing that The Night Watchman and I investigate paranormal anomalies, she asked if we would come up and take a look. I assured her that we would be up there as soon as The Night Watchman got home from work and changed clothes.
     We strolled into Road Hogs at about 5:30 p.m. There were only about three people there as the night was early. Ordering a pitcher of beer, we sat down at the bar to listen to the events of the day leading up to the video tape.
     John Abate had been in the bar alone in the morning. He took a box of empty liquor bottles, set them on the end of the bar, then went downstairs to do some paperwork. The monitor for their security cameras sits right next to where he was working and he happened to catch some strange movement on the screen. He continued to watch and discovered that something seemed to be very interested in the box of empty liquor bottles he'd left on the counter. John continued his paperwork with one eye on the monitor, but had the presence of mind to start recording what he was seeing on tape.

SEE VIDEO HERE

     A short time later, John went upstairs to take care of some things and, of course, see if he could see what it was he'd been seeing on the monitor. There was nothing there. However, when he'd go back downstairs, he would be able to see it flitting around the box again. Finishing the necessary chores, which included removing the box from the bar counter, John left the bar, locking up, but left the video tape recording.

SEE VIDEO HERE

     They started the video tape on one of the bar television sets so that we could watch. The recording had picked up two separate video cameras so it continually switched back and forth from one to another. One camera, being of lesser color and in a different position, did not pick up what appeared to be a small, obviously winged creature, flitting around by the box of empty liquor bottles and around the edge of the bar counter.
     My first impression was that it was a wasp as it seemed to have legs hanging down as it flew and it flew much like a wasp. However, the more we watched, the stranger the flying pattern was. It would glide up to the bar from beyond the camera's view, hover in one spot for quite some time, and then float gently away to somewhere else. Once John had removed the box, it was easier to see the flying pattern. It seemed to have quite a fascination for that particular corner of the bar counter.

SEE VIDEO HERE

     As we sat watching with John fast forwarding through the camera that did not pick up the anomaly, several more people came into the bar and began watching. At first, it was amazement we saw and heard, but then the speculations about what it might be began to be heard.
     One person seemed to think that someone had stood outside the bar window starting at 11 a.m. in the morning and continuing for nearly five hours with a pen light to play a joke on John and Tracey. We all argued at how foolish and impossible this would be and that no one in their right mind would do something like that. Besides that, normally, the security cameras were not on at those hours and certainly not recording an empty bar, so the fictitious person standing outside the bar would be entertaining only themselves. No one could convince this man that it could possibly be something else. He was absolutely certain it was someone with a pen light.
     During these debates, a couple of girls came in and also began watching the video. Tracey, though she must have been tired by this time of repeating the story of how they caught the anomaly on tape, went into the explanation again. We were amazed to see one of the girls watching the video stand up and move around as though she had spiders crawling on her and to hear her yell out that her hair was standing on end. She stated that she had the major creeps from seeing it.
     John and Tracey wanted to know if we could tell them what it was for sure. We told them that if they made a copy of the tape for us, we would take it home, get a still shot, put it on Photoshop, then enlarge it to get a better view. We couldn't say anything for certain without doing this as we needed a close up. To me, there were times that it still resembled a wasp, so we certainly didn't want to say anything for certain until we'd had the chance to examine it further. John and Tracey said they would make us a copy.
     The Night Watchman and I moved from the bar to a table. As we sat there, we watched other people come in and begin to watch the video. With each new patron, Tracey or John would launch into the story of what everyone was watching so that no one was left out of what was going on. Debates continued for awhile, then John shut off the tape and set the screen back to regular television. Things even got a bit heated on a couple of occasions over the whole ordeal. You had some of the people believing that it was a fairy or some other kind of little person and others trying hard to come up with a logical explanation. Neither side could be swayed from what they thought they were seeing.
     The next day, I received a phone call from Tracey who said they had made a copy of the tape for us, but that it really didn't matter because they'd figured out what it was. Apparently, later that evening, John and Tracey were showing the video to some biker friends that had come in. At first, they were amazed at what they were seeing, but then one of them spoke up and said that he could see a string of some sort. Tracey argued a bit that it wasn't a string, but a light that appeared to be emanating off of the flying anomaly. The man pointed it out even closer, at which point, Tracey grabbed a flashlight to check out the area around the security camera.
     Sure enough, as she pointed the flashlight beam up toward the security camera, she could easily see the cobweb string that was holding a small piece of lint. The breeze that came in the window the day that John Abate began recording was just enough to create the image of something flying around in their bar, but the piece of lint was only about an inch from the security camera lens.

     The purpose of sharing this experience and some of the video clip is to show how easily we all can be fooled by things captured on film, digital camera or video. The Night Watchman and I, though we have seen our share of anomalies, still never commit to saying what something is until we have all the facts and have eliminated any and all explanations of what something could possibly be. If, we are unable to come up with anything logical, then and only then, will we state our opinion.
     Of course, there is another important statement. We state "our opinion". In the field of the paranormal, we feel there are no experts. There are those who have spent 20 years or more studying the field and have more experience than others, but they still are not experts. If there were actually experts, then there would be no need to continue further investigations of the paranormal because all the questions would be answered. When someone states, "I KNOW that's what it is" concerning something of a paranormal nature, we listen to their explanations, but cannot take them too seriously. In the mysteries that surround the paranormal, the words "I KNOW" do not, as yet, come into play. If someone says, "I believe it may be...", then we listen carefully because this is someone who understands that there really isn't any specific explanation or irrefutable proof in the area of the paranormal and this person still has an open mind to possibilities.
     So, upon examining the evidence you have gathered from an investigation or from random shots at a birthday party or other special occasion, go through possible explanations for any anomalies you find with a fine toothed comb. Get other people's opinions, but recognize them as opinions. Do the process of elimination of any and all logical possibilities no matter how badly you want the evidence to be something paranormally specific, and remember, we've all been fooled at one time or another. There is no shame in this. It is all part of the learning process, so if it happens to you, tuck the lesson into your memory banks and get back up on that proverbial bucking horse. You might well be the one who eventually determines specific proof on a paranormal mystery.

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