Spirits in The Bank

Informant: Male/26/Chinese ancestry

Location: Kapahulu, Oahu

I work at the Kapahulu branch of a certain bank. One day recently I was on my lunch break eating with my boss in the break room when I feel a slight tug on my shirt collar. It felt like someone was trying to fix my collar. I turned around and nobody was there. 

I asked her, “Did you see anything behind me?” which sounds completely crazy already, so I told her I felt someone tug on my collar. My boss was like, “You’re just tired.” Which I was, but I know what I felt and it definitely felt real. The tugging felt like an actual hand.

A few days after that I was coming back again on my lunch break with some food and I walked into the office, where my boss was again. Out of the corner of my eye I see someone’s shadow walk into the hallway heading in the direction of the bathroom. I thought it was another employee, but when I walked into the hallway nobody was there. I didn’t bother asking my boss if she saw anything.

A similar thing happened to a coworker at another branch. She had just closed down and was checking to make sure everything was in order. She looked at the door, and in the reflection of the door she saw a little boy. When she turned around, nobody was there. She was the only person there. 

I mean, I’m known for being nail-bitingly neurotic when it's busy, but I know what I felt, and I know what I saw.

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Strage Occurences at Solomon Elementary School

Informant: Female/59/Puerto Rican ancestry
Location: Schofield Barracks, Oahu

Solomon Elementary School is located on Leilehua Plains on the base of Schofield. Legend has it that it’s a gathering place of Hawaiians and Hawaiian military operations happened there. Solomon is also in the path of the night marchers. Many teachers have reported strange unexplainable things happening both in after-school and during-school hours.

Teachers have reported hearing people outside the doors, walking up and down when they have been working late in the evening. When they would look, nobody would be there. Teachers have also experienced in a certain room the radio turning on all by itself. It always happens in the same room.

One of the portables near the fields would experience a locking phenomenon. Whenever a teacher would leave, the door would lock from the inside. It’s a deadbolt lock that you can’t lock it from inside, because if it locks from the inside, logically the students could lock you out. In this same room quite recently (maybe a year or so ago) teachers and EA’s reported that their phones would inexplicably call each other. The teacher’s phone would call the EA’s cell phone when neither of them were touching them. Another instance reported that one day the teacher turned off Sesame Street and all of a sudden things started to fly off the shelves. They actually flew around the room. They turned Sesame Street back on and it stopped.

Then a few years ago a teacher was leaving late one night when she saw a group of Hawaiian - clothed people walking past the room. She saw them and quickly left the area.

My classroom would occasionally get broken into by kids. But these kids were good about breaking in, oddly enough. They would do strange things like clean up all the garbage and never leave a mess. One morning we came into work and found that they broke in, but the room was left open and messy. It was covered in trash and we think the kids got scared off by ghosts, but we will never really know.

Personally, I’ve experienced times where I’d been sitting at the computer with my back to the desk, no one around and the windows closed, and I would hear things rattling on my desk, like papers shuffling. There would be no wind, and when I would look up it would stop. But once I looked away it would start again. I would say “Cut it out,” and it would stop. This has happened more than once. I would also be at the door talking to someone in my empty room empty when I would see a man walk from my room to the next, but there would be no man there. Another thing that would happen frequently is that my door would open and close, open and close, all on its own. The kids would always go to see who it was, but there would never be anyone there. According to the Hawaiian priestess, the area that my classroom is in is a porthole or hot spot for activity.

There have been so many strange things happening at the school that they would constantly get it blessed. When the rooms were renovated, the construction workers got the two rooms that have the most spiritual activity blessed, without previous knowledge of the hauntings. The school didn’t tell them anything about those rooms.

Solomon Elementary School has been blessed by a baptism minister, by the school kupuna, and by Hawaiian priests. One Kahuna spread a little bit of light on why the school may have such spiritual activity. She said that there is a lot of activity there because it is close to the Kolekole Pass where the warriors of Wahiawa and Waianae would meet in battle.

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Strange Things in The Cabin

Informant: Male/27/Hawaiian-Korean mixed ancestry
Location: Koke'e, Kauai

One of our family friends owned a cabin up in Koke'e and invited me and my family for the weekend. This cabin was huge: it had three bedrooms on top of a living room, bathroom and kitchen. The decor in this cabin was pretty off the wall. There was a bear skin rug, taxidermied foxes and deer heads on the wall.

I had a room all to myself. I was maybe 13 at the time. Across my bed there was a mirror and a picture of this Victorian lady spanking a kid over her knee. I thought it was really weird, so I took it down and put it on the floor. And just because I'm not comfortable being able to see myself lying in bed, I took the mirror down too and put it on the floor by the painting. Another weird thing in this room was an extra door. It was like a door that led to another room, meaning there were two ways into that room at one point. This door was boarded shut. You just couldn't open it.

The weather was pretty crazy that night. It wasn't raining, but it was windy like crazy. As I lay in bed trying to sleep, I start to hear a scratching on the wall; the wall that faced the outside. I tried to shrug it off, but after a while I went to my parent’s room. I told my mom that there was scratching noises, but she was grumpy and tired and told me it was the trees outside and to go back to sleep.

So I return to my room and try to sleep again. The scratching noise persisted, and then suddenly...knocking started. Along with the scratching noise, there was now knocking keeping me awake. I tried to suck it up, but I ran back to my parent’s room and told my mom about the banging. She told me it was probably just the lantern by the front door banging the wall and to go back to sleep.

So once again, I return to my room. The scratching and the knocking still persisted, and then suddenly the boarded up door in my room started shaking. It started shaking violently. Then out of the corner of my eye I see a glint...and the mirror and picture I took down earlier that day were both hanging on my wall. I ran back to my parent’s room and decided to sleep on the floor.

As I was laying on the floor trying to wrap myself in what little blanket I could get, I had a perfect view of the kitchen outside the door. All of a sudden there was a stream of light shining onto the floor. It was a skinny beam, and it moved slowly through the kitchen, and then disappeared.

Needless to say I didn't get any sleep that night.

The next morning, with my mom in a better mood, we decided to investigate what could have been making all the ruckus the night before. On the side of my room there were indeed trees...about 50 feet away. The only thing near the wall was ginger plants, and that certainly couldn't make a scratching or banging noise. Then we checked the lantern in the front. There was indeed a lantern, but it was cast iron and did not move. That could not have been banging in the wind.

Next we went into my room to check out the door. My mom took the knob and tried to shake the door, but it would not budge. She and I both tried with all our might at the same time, but that door would not budge even using all our strength. It was boarded up tight.

Finally in the kitchen, the window was facing in a way that the light I saw was in no way coming in the direction of the one and only window of the kitchen. The only thing directly across the bedroom door was a pantry.

As for the painting and the mirror getting back on the wall, well, I know it wasn't my brother because he was far too small to reach that high. I know it wasn't my dad messing with me because he was snoring away all night next to my mom. I know it wasn't the owner of the cabin, because his wife confirmed that he was passed out snoring next to her all night as well.

I don’t know who owns the cabin now, but I would like to go back and see if those strange things still happen.

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The Old Japanese Man

Informant: Male/Age Unknown/Ancestry Unknown

Location: Pearl City Heights, Oahu

This happened back in the mid-eighties, around 1985. My friend's house was built on a grave of a Japanese man. At first it was just odd noises. Then lights would come on, and then the showers. These disturbances would happen whenever everyone was together in another room. We would always make sure everything was off when we left the house, but sometimes we would get a call saying that we left the water running and the lights on. The disturbances graduated to doors slamming real loud, and what sounded like really heavy footsteps. Almost like someone was stomping on purpose.

My friend's parents finally decided to call some kind of holy man. I wasn't there at that time since they only wanted the family to be present, but the holy man walked through the house with some kind of pendant. It started going in circles until it was straight out. Then he started talking in a very different voice that was not his own. My friend said that it was the voice of the old Japanese man that was buried on the property.

The holy man told the family what to do and besides an odd noise every now and then, all was good. But the spirit of the Japanese man was really pissed and he let the family know it.

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Computer Savvy Spirit

Informant: Male/20/Mexican-European ancestry

Location: Chaminade University, Oahu

My campus is full of creepy stories, as is every campus across the nation. In my dorm, I would hear strange things every now and then. I would usually turn off my laptop before I went to bed, but I would leave it open. I'd lay down to sleep, and then I would hear a clack-clack-clack noise. I'd sit up, look around, the sound would stop. I'd lay back down to sleep again, and the clack-clack-clack noise would start again. I knew that noise. I knew it was the sound of my laptop keyboard.

There was nobody else in my room besides me. Whenever I'd close the laptop, the noise would stop.

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Don't Go In the Bathroom Alone!

Informant: Female/19/mixed
Location: Chaminade University, Oahu

Rumor has it that the dorms on the campus I attend are haunted. I didn't believe in that at first, but the thing about rumors is that they are often true.

There was something odd about the community bathrooms on my side of the dorms. No idea why, but you always got the creeps while in there. One afternoon I went in for a routine pee when I heard a sniffling noise coming from the stall next to me. Without shame I leaned over and stuck my head under the division to see no one was there. I let out a small cough to get anyone's attention, see if there was someone else in the bathroom with me. No reply, no shuffle, nothing. No one was there with me. After a few more moments the sniffling continued but shifted from a crying sniffle to a full on sniff, like trying to smell me out. So, I bolted. Don't worry I washed my hands at the bathroom down the hall. Later that evening I told my roommate about the incident and she said she had had a similar experience where it feels like there is someone in the stall next to you, but when you look no one is there. We shrugged it off only to be shocked the next week.

I was finished taking a shower. I opened the partition curtain for my shower stall to go brush my teeth at the sink 5 feet away. When I turned around, the shower curtain was closed. I was a bit puzzled because I was SURE I had opened the thing. I shrugged went back and opened the curtain again to remove my belongings and go fiddle with my hair for a bit in front of the mirror. When I turned around again, the shower curtain was closed. There was no one else in the bathroom but me, so I was a bit freaked out by this. I again told my roommate who told me that some of her shower supplies had been moved around or were missing. I joked saying that maybe the ghost wanted to take a shower too.

Minor stuff like that continued through out the year. My hairbrush would be moved out of my shower kit, slippers and clothes rearranged, and every now and then my entire shower kit would be moved over to the other side of the shower stall. I just chucked it up to a helpful ghost until the last night I showered in that bathroom. I was washing my hair and went to rinse the foam off my hands when all of a sudden I felt something gently pull my hair. I thought, "wtf?" And when I reached my hand up there was a spike of hair on top of my head as if someone had pulled my hair up. Yeah, that was the fastest shower I have ever taken and I have never been back to that bathroom again.

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