Backseat Surprise in Kalihi

Informant: Male/64/Japanese-American

Location: H1 E off-ramp to Kalihi Street mauka

In 1976 I was a drummer in a blues-rock band, returning home to Kalihi from a gig in Haleiwa, around midnight on a Thursday. I took the Eastbound H-1 off-ramp onto Kalihi Street going mauka, which passes in front of the Kalihi Library near the Bishop Museum. 

 As I looked over my right shoulder to merge to my right, I was shocked to see in my back seat a young woman of high school age, casually looking out the window. She was wearing a 60's era aloha print tunic-type dress, her face illuminated by the older pre-mercury arc streetlights of the decade. As the ramp curved onto Kalihi Street, she turned toward me, showed a look of surprise, and vanished! 

I can say that I had nothing to drink that night (the gig was at a church) and I was not sleepy (my normal sleep time was past 1:00 a.m.). Has anyone had similar experiences in the area?

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The Girl in the Rain

Informant: Male/42/undisclosed ethnicity

Location: Kailua, Oahu

Back in 2004, I was at a bar one night in Kailua playing pool. I was heading home to Kaneohe just after midnight and it was raining heavy. I was at the traffic light in front of Castle Medical Center with no cars behind me when I noticed someone standing at the bus stop; just standing there in the rain instead of under the shelter. I thought to myself, "What kind of idiot stands in the rain like that with no jacket, etc., and no buses running?" 

So as I was passing the bus stop, I was trying to see who the idiot was when I saw it was a young local girl, probably mid -20's. She was looking at me passing so I pulled over to the side and reversed a bit to ask if she was going to Kaneohe, but instead she just jumped in the car. So I asked if she was going to Kaneohe and she said, "No, I have to go to K-Mart on Nimitz." I thought to myself, "F******-a, man."

So on we went without talking and I noticed that she had a few scratches on her arms and face, so I thought maybe she was in a fight or something. When we reached town I finally asked if she had missed the last bus and she said no, she was in an accident and she smashed her car. After she said that all the hair on my neck and head felt tingly like it was standing because it dawned on me that this girl is dead at the hospital and her spirit is here in my car, determined to get to K-Mart. 

On I went trying hard not to be scared. Finally, I park the car at K-Mart and she doesn't get out until I say, "We're here." Then she just jumped out of the car and never said thanks or anything and I noticed that she had no shoes, and I thought to myself, "Nahh cannot be." So I watched her walking to the K-Mart entrance, and before she even got close to the door she faded away, and my eyes just widened without blinking. I took a few deep breaths to calm down before heading home. I never looked at the passenger seat the whole drive home. I turned up the music and turned the rear view mirror upwards.

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Vanishing Hitchiker in Kailua

Informant: Male/42/ethnicity unknown

Location: Oahu

Back in 2004 I had been at a bar in Kailua playing pool, and I was heading home to Kaneohe just after midnight. It was raining heavy, and I was at the traffic light in front of Castle Medical Center with no cars behind me. I noticed someone standing at the bus stop, just standing there in the rain instead of under the shelter thing for the bus stop. I thought to myself, what kind of idiot stands in the rain like that with no jacket and no buses running? 

So as I was passing the bus stop I was trying to see who the idiot was and I saw it was a young local girl, probably mid 20's. She was looking at me as I passed so I pulled over to the side and reversed a bit to ask if she was going to Kaneohe, but instead she just jumped in the car. I asked if she was going to Kaneohe and she said no, "I have to go to K-Mart on Nimitz," and I thought to myself, freakin'-a, man. So on we went without talking. I noticed that she had a few scratches on her arms and face so I thought maybe she was in a fight or something. When we reached town I finally asked if she had missed the last bus and she said no, she was in an accident and she smashed her car. 

After she said that all the hair on my neck and head felt tingly, like it was standing, because it dawned on me that this girl was dead at the hospital and her spirit was here in my car determined to get to K-Mart. On I went trying hard not to be scared. Finally I parked the car at K-Mart and she didn't get out until I said, "We're here." Then she just jumped out of the car and never said thanks or anything and I noticed that she had no shoes and I thought to myself, "Nah cannot be." So I watched her walk to the K-Mart entrance and before she even got close to the door, she faded away, and my eyes just widened without blinking. 

I took a few deep breaths to calm down before heading home. I never looked at the passenger seat the whole drive home, turned up the music and turned the rear view mirror upwards.

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The Jeep

Informant: Male/26/Portuguese, Chinese, Hawaiian ancestry

Location: Kealia, Kauai

I was around 15 when this happened. It was the 4th of July and me, my dad and my sister went up to Monuments to bust fireworks. It was around 12:30 a.m. and I was busting fireworks in something like a big gigantic drain. My dad and my sister were just sitting around watching me. I ran out of fireworks, so I went back to the truck to get some more. When I turned around, there was an old, old Jeep right behind me. The kind that was just bars, no cover or anything.

The way this place is, it’s a dirt road. We went down it about one mile, and we could see the beginning of it. If there had been any cars coming, we would have seen them. But there it was, right behind me. Nobody heard it or saw it coming. The Jeep was revving it's engine. When I looked in it, there was nobody there. There was no driver. It revved its engine again, and drove off down the road. I saw the lights turn the corner, and it was gone.

I looked over at my dad and sister, and my dad said, “You guys saw that? Did you see anyone in the car?” I told him there was nobody in it. He says, “We goin' follow. Come on.” So we all get in the truck, and my dad starts it up, and it dies. He tried three more times, and it died out each time. He says to us, “If the truck dies out a fifth time, that means something doesn’t want us to follow it.” He started the truck, and it died out again. Finally my dad said, “Let’s get outta here.” He threw it in reverse, it didn’t stall, and we left.

About three weeks later, I went to ride dirt bike with my uncle up at Monuments. We got to the road that we had been on that night, so I tell my uncle, “Eh, let’s go down this road. I want to see what’s down here.” So a little ways down the road, where we saw the Jeep turn, there was a tree. And wrapped around the tree was a Jeep. It looked like it had been there for a long time because it was all rusted. It was the same Jeep that I had seen that night.

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The Knudsen Gap Hitchiker

Informant: Female/age unknown/Japanese ancestry

Location: Knudsen Gap, Tunnel of Trees, Kauai

It was 10:30 p.m. and my sister was leaving work from Kalaheo and heading towards Lihue. She notice that she was the last car as she passed the Tunnel of Trees. As she was going down the slight hill where there is an old, short concrete bridge, she notice out of the corner of her eye there was a really bright light shining from the passenger seat window. She suddenly realized a very dark figure had entered her car and was sitting in the passenger's seat. The air suddenly became extremely cold; so cold that her teeth started chattering. She didn't dare look at the dark figure that was sitting right next to her. She just kept asking out loud, "Is that you, dad? Is that you, dad?"

This lasted the span of about a minute as she was about to make the turn that goes between the mountain. Suddenly the dark figure jumped out of the car into the hao bushes. The air in the car returned to normal. She wasn't freezing nor were her teeth chattering.

That dark figure scared her so badly that her husband had to drive her to work for about three weeks until she felt comfortable enough to drive by herself again. She never encountered that scary ghost hitchhiker again nor does she ever want to. That stretch of road is called the Knudsen Gap, and there have been quite a few tragic accidents on that straight away. I think (don't quote me on this) it might have to do with that dark figure that jumped in her car.My sister didn't look at it so she wouldn't crash. I can only imagine what that thing looked like. Scary...

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Take Uncle Back

Informant: Female/28/Japanese ancestry 

Location: Kekaha, Kauai

A bunch of friends and I went drifting at Triangles in Mana on the west side of Kauai one night. We had all gathered along that long stretch of road along the beach in Kekaha when we noticed one of the cars lagging behind. Suddenly all we see is the car burn rubber and race over to where we were, and the car doors flew open and people jumped out. 

The driver was screaming “Get the f*** out of my car! Get out now!” The rest of us were baffled. I thought to myself, “I know we didn’t do any drugs tonight. What the hell is going on?” Finally the driver said, “I was driving and then all of a sudden there was a man in the back seat of my car! I saw him in my rearview mirror, and he won’t get out!” 

I have an ability to see and feel spirits, so the driver and my boyfriend pleaded with me to go over to the car and take a look. I refused, but I told the driver, “It’s just a gut feeling I have, but uncle wants you to take him back the way you came. You were driving too fast and he couldn’t get out of the car. He wants you to take him back. That’s just what I feel.”

The driver refused to get back in the car with the spirit. So finally, after a lot of pleading, I gave in and approached the car. I covered my eyes, and when I got to the car I felt for the door and spoke. 

“Uncle, I’m sorry, but you gotta get out of the car.”

If that spirit was a real person, I would have run for my life, because I felt such an immense anger coming from him that I started hyperventilating. He was pissed. I told the driver he had to take him back, and he had to take him back now. He finally sucked it up and got back in the car and sped in the other direction. 

I had my eyes closed the whole time, but even then I could see him without even having to open my eyes. He just looked like a regular guy. Not big, not small, not old, just like a regular guy. But he was pissed, and he wanted to go back.

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Pork in The Tunnel of Trees

Informant: Male/27/Hawaiian-Korean mixed ancestry

Location: Tunnel of Trees, Kauai

A while ago, when my parents were just married, they were coming back from a party with my uncle and his wife around 2am. Being local, they had a bunch of food with them from the party which included kalua pig among other things.

To get back home, they had to drive through the tunnel of trees. When they entered the tunnel, their car started acting funny. They thought that my uncle was messing around with everyone, but when they looked at his face, he was pale. They realized he wasn't messing around. His foot was on the gas, gunning it, the car still running but not moving.

Finally someone realized why they weren't moving and yelled, "The pork! Get rid of the pork!" So they threw the pork from the car and the car shot forward at full speed since my uncles foot was still on the gas. They moved so quickly they almost flew over the side of the road.

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Kepaloa

Informant: Male/63/mixed ancestry

Location: Hanalei, Kauai

This happened around 1973, 1974. I was working the midnight shift (11:00 p.m. -7:00 a.m.) as the lone patrol officer in Hanalei town. We used to call that Beat 41. Just past Hanalei town I see this guy come out of nowhere and run into the middle of the road waving his arms like a nut. I think he was a Hawaiian male in his late 30s. He looked kinda frantic.

So I stop, get out of my car and ask him, "What's happening?" He says, "Kepaloas! Kepaloas!" And I knew that meant "ghosts." I said "What happened with the kepaloas?" He says, "The kepaloas took my car and threw it in the ocean!" I'm thinking, yeah right. I'm suspecting he got drunk and he ran his car off the road. So I tell him to get in my patrol car and I say, "Where's your car?"

We just pass the bridge, and I get out, and he says, "Down there, down there." So I look, and sure enough, there's his car right on the shoreline, waves breaking on it. But there are no track marks in the sand. Not jut because it was wet, there was dry sand also. I would have seen marks in the dry sand. So I tell him, "We better call the tow truck to get your car out of the sand." I don't know what happened after that, but I would imagine it wasn't easy to get his car out.

It could have been ghosts. I couldn't explain how his car got there. There was no physical evidence to determine how it got there. There were no tire marks in the sand. Besides, it was quite a distance. He would have gotten stuck before he got to the shore line.

" Kepaloas..."

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