An American Haunting

A young man bought a car from a used vehicle dealership. He was initially very pleased with his new car. It was in excellent condition and he had paid a lot less than he thought he would. However, the problems soon started.

Over the next few days the car had two flat tyres and a flat battery. Just bad luck he thought, but things were about to take a sinister turn.

One morning he found that all the car windows were open. The only explanation he could think of was that he left a door unlocked and somebody had got in and wound down all the windows. But why would anybody do that?

He also noticed that the car smelt heavily of cigarette smoke. Nobody to his knowledge had smoked in the car since he had bought it a few days earlier. Another strange thing had happened which definitely gave him the jitters. The radio seemed to have a mind of its own. Whenever he tuned in to his favourite rock station, the radio would turn itself off. When he switched it on again he found that it had tuned itself in to a religious station and he would find himself listening to a hellfire preacher promising damnation to all sinners. No matter how many times he fiddled with the tuner button this kept happening.

One evening, while driving his regular route home, he inexplicably took a wrong turn off the freeway and found himself in an unfamiliar part of town. After driving around for a while the cars engine suddenly went dead. He managed to get the engine going again but not before he realised that he had broken down in front of a church.

By now he was getting quite uneasy and more than a little scared. This car, he decided, was going to have to go.

But there was a pretty big shock in store, something that frightened him out of his wits.

The following day, as he was reversing out of his driveway, he looked into his rear view mirror and was stunned to see someone sitting in the back seat. He found himself looking at an old lady in a black hat. She was smoking a cigarette, blowing the smoke out of an open window. While he stared in disbelief the radio came on and a man started shouting about Jesus, the devil, and eternal damnation. The terrified young man jumped out of the car and ran back into his house.

When he calmed down he looked out and saw that the car was empty. However, there was no way he was ever going to go back into it. After thinking for a bit he looked on the internet and contacted a local paranormal group. To his great relief they took him seriously and said they would help him.

A technical investigation could not confirm anything so they decided to look into the car's history. They came up with some intriguing answers.

The used car salesman admitted that the car gave him the creeps and he had knocked the price down to get rid of it. He said the windows were often open even just a few seconds after he had closed them. He also said that the radio would come on when the car was locked and empty.

Through the salesman they tracked down the car's previous owner, an old man who lived just a few blocks away. The old man agreed to meet with the paranormal investigators and a very interesting conversation ensued.

He told them that he had sold the car after the recent death of his wife. She had been housebound in the last few years of her life. However, no matter how much pain she was in, she insisted on going to church every Sunday (the same church that the car had recently broke down in front of). They would spend the morning in church and the afternoon driving around town visiting friends and family. The old man said that his wife loved these Sunday outings. She would sit on the back seat and treat herself to few cigarettes. They would always have the windows open. She also loved to listen to a particular Christian radio station that had some good old time preaching. Unfortunately, when they returned home one Sunday evening, he found that she had quietly died in the back of the car.

The old man was astonished to realise that his wife's spirit may somehow still exist in the car. He immediately offered to buy it back. An offer, you will not be surprised to know, that could not be refused.

It is possible that some people die and do not actually realise that they have passed on. This is what could have happened to the old lady. Her spirit thought she was still on one of her regular Sunday drives and was probably quite confused by being stuck on a car forecourt and being driven around by a strange young man.

I hope that, once the car was returned to her husband, that he was able to help her to move on. To continue on her spiritual journey.