It IS Haunted, I Don't Care What Anyone Says

After having heard some stories about Hoyt Sherman Place here in Des Moines, a few of us thought to look up the "known" haunted locations here in Des Moines, Iowa. When googling "haunted places in des moines" and "haunted places in Iowa" one gets millions of hits because even when using "" (<---these) around a phrase, you still get hits for anything that involves any of these words. I swear people could have told me that googling made research easier, but to me it seems to cloud things up worse than before. Maybe I just havent mastered the art of google. But either way, Hoyt Sherman was not listed. However, while for the purposes of finding a picture of the mansion known as Hoyt Shermna Place, I came across a link to paranormal investigators having done an investigation at this very location. Pretty dry read, adn no good stories or anything that really make fo rgood listening/reading, but here it is:

http://desmoinesparanormal.webs.com/hoytshermanplace.htm

So anyways, you have heard me talk about this place before, if you were reading my blog back during the infamous bat attacks rentacop incidents, earlier this summer. I may have even blogged about the time I was there respnding to an alarm with a fellow patrolman, who lifted the skirt of the stage in the theatre. After having been there 10 minutes already, this simple action suddenly led to very soft playing music, something that sounded like it was out of the 1920s or 30s. Creepy stuff to be sure. I was definitely ready to leave upon that.

Well, last night, or rather this morning at about 4am, things got a whole lot creepier. And by a whole lot, I mean, I'd rather pee my pants in public than step foot in that place after the lights have been turned out, and especially never again while I'm alone.

So, I was chatting with my supervisor, Stew, when I got the call from the alarm company saying they had motion in one of the emergency exit stairwells. My supervisor offered to come along, which was okay by me, I prefer to have company while I'm there anyways. This place is rather big and kind of scary. So we get there, and this particular zone is on the theater side of the building, (there is the house, and then there is the theatre... the alarm system is set up to montior them as separate zones altogether), so we enter in through the theater entrance. We make our way down through the floor level seating, and I notice a stocking cap laying in front of one of the seats. No big deal, they are showcasing The Nutcracker, and someone who watched the show probably lost track of it and left without it. I set it on the front of the stage as we head to check the stairwells, and all the back storage and dressing rooms.

When we come back out, the hat is no longer on the stage. Okay, no need to panic just yet. Maybe the keyholder, who is the maintenance man (I believe) got called as well, like usual when we have an alarm. He must've come through while we were in the other rooms, saw the hat and grabbed it to take to the lost and found depository. Having cleared the theater side, we decide to go into the house to see the keyholder and let him know that nothing is wrong. Well, the door is locked that wil take you into the house side of this monstrous building. Not that unusual, but when I unlock it, the alarm goes off for the house side, which means...noone else is there. However, in that old sitting room that serves as a side lobby, there are some sculpted busts. On top of one particular busts, sits this blue and white stocking cap...just like the one we found in the theater, which I had left on the stage. Now this is just far too creepy for me, and as well for Stew. We quickly took care of the alarm system, rearmed it, locked that place up and got the hell out of dodge.

I think the next time that alarm comes up, I'm either sending someone there and handing them the keys to take care of it, or I'm coming in with full intentions on torching that place. Bats are one thing....hats moving from one side of the place to another, through locked doors and not setting off alarms, and noone else seen on sight...well, that's totally different, and it aint cool at all. I'll be the first one to tell you, that my little macho image is truly stricken dead when this kind of stuff happens!

Terrorist Acts By Bats!!!

As most of you know by now, I'm your average run of the mill rentacop. I drive around, mostly looking pretty, and check to make sure clients' businesses and homes are secure all night. One of my other duties is to respond to alarms at these places. I get the call, go to the alarm, make sure everything is good, or if a bad guy shows up, do something about it...like call the actual cops. Real Hero stuff, and all for $9.50 per hour!!!

Well, the other day, I am walking around a client's house. She moved to another part of town, and left this house in a rather affluent neighborhood which is up for sale. We used to just drive into the driveway and that was it. One day the realtor left the front door open after a showing, and some kids decided to take advantage of the new party spot, henceforth we do full walk arounds every shift now. Anyways, I'm walking around this house, and as I check the front door, I notice something on the board trim above the door and underneath the overhang. I shine my flashlight up there to see what it is, and RIGHT FOR MY NOSE, this bat does some aerial ninja stuff off the ledge, scares the hell out of me, and after backing me off disappears into the trees. Okay, no big deal...

Then came last night. I am sent on a non-identifiable motion alarm to the Hoyt Sherman Foundation house. This place was built by a Civil War General way back when. There are stories, but only word of mouth (I checked for stories online, but came up with nothing), about it being considered possibly haunted-worthy. Mostly centered around a supposed illegitimate boy, affectionately named Chicken Boy, between General Sherman and his daughter. Anyways... this place has a theatre section (which I've attended functions at before) as well as the house, which included an art displaying addition. The place freaks me out, because it does indeed look as haunted worthy as almost any other place I've seen. It's big, with lots of rooms, lots of passageways from random spots in the building, and really friggin dark inside.

Well, my supervisor shows up and decides to escort me through the place. My manly macho attitude goes right out the window here, and more than welcomes the company. We check the outside, and verify that the theatre section is not in alarm. So we enter the house and check out rooms. The alarm pad says the mirror room is the point of alarm (why the security monitoring company can't figure this out is beyond me), but that helps about as much as the security monitor's ineptness. We find a door that leads up to a previously existing belltower. The tower was removed, and the roof resealed (albeit probably not all that well) at a lower level, but the door to it is still there. I open it up, and inside is a bat swooping around acting as a sentry. I quickly shut the door trapping the bat away from us. We check soem more rooms and are in the main upper hallway next to the stairwell, when it happens. A big freaking 747 divebombs us, swoops out and around and continues to make runs at our head. Apparently this was a training exercise and the airborne intruder is not armed to the hilt, otherwise we surely would have been strafed to our deaths.
This is one big friggin bat. I thought at first maybe Batman was real, but then realized Batman doesnt attack rentacops, and we hadn't activated the Bat Signal yet anyways. Then of course I thought that if Chicken Boy had truly disappeared, that this bat had been feasting on him to get that big. I mean seriously, the thing was THIS (stretching my hands out) big!

My supervisor, Casey, attempted to fend off the bat with his mag-lite. Yeah, that only pisses bats off apparently. You just don't antagonize a bat. That big bastard ended up chasing us downstairs and continuing the constant harrassment. Casey beat feet right past me and out into the kitchen, which is apparently out of bounds for the bat, which left me at the bottom of the staircase, crouched low, and stretching with everything I had to hit the lightswitch to the off position. I clicked the switch, and ran underneath the swooping bat into the kitchen myself. Apparently bored with us quitters, the bat disappeared up the stairwell and into the darkness. THANK GOD! We got permission from the keyholder to arm the perimeter, rather than chase down the bat and evict him just to set up the entire alarm system. Again..THANK GOD. That bat surely would've eaten us, or given us rabies.

I'm not so sure I signed up for this stuff, at least not without being allowed to carry around some anti-aircraft guns!