Renee Rosenow

You know it’s bad when the bartender won’t go down into the basement to play Ouija board with you.

This is what happened to the three brave souls from The Spectator staff who ventured out in the search of The Stones Throw ghost. Did they come out alive? Well, there wouldn’t be an article if they didn’t.

Here is the true story about a showcase editor, copy editor and a photo editor and their encounters with a ghost, when it stopped being polite and locked them out of the building.

Telling the story is Frank Pellegrino and Natalie Saeger.

Not so long ago .

Although it has not been confirmed, in the early 1900s a man reportedly hanged himself on the third floor of The Stones Throw, 304 Eau Claire St. Ever since then, bartenders and other staff members alike have experienced many unexplainable phenomena.

According to the Unexplained Research LLC Web site, there are reports of a wide range of events that employees have experienced.

Among the apparent phenomena recorded by the site are a few activities the staff has encountered. Some of these happenings include sounds of footsteps in the old kitchen hallways and doors opening and closing on their own.

“You hear weird noises,” junior and Stones Throw bartender Brandon Roberts said. “I have to play music up really loud at night.” Roberts said he does this so he doesn’t get spooked by anything out of the ordinary.

Stones Throw’s general manager Jared Billhorn shared his most significant experience with us.

Billhorn said one time when he was walking down the staircase to the basement the jukebox kicked in as he struck his foot on the ground. He said it “scared the s***” out of him.

A former bartender mentioned on the Unexplained Research Web site had a particularly frightening experience. Even though none of the employees had worked with this particular man, everyone interviewed was familiar with the tale. The rumor states late one night when a bartender was closing he jokingly remarked, “OK, everybody out.” Soon after, a previously unnoticed man stood up from his stool, gave his jacket a shake and headed toward the exit when he disappeared completely.

Going off of these experiences, we apprehensively strolled off to The Stone’s Throw and began to investigate the rumors.

In the beginning . there was a tour

Upon arrival, the regulars were just finishing up and providing a few interesting comments about what they’ve heard and experienced at The Stones Throw.

After the place cleared, Roberts agreed to provide a tour and showed us some areas we might want to further inspect.

Our first stop was the basement where the infamous jukebox and the chilling kitchen are located. It was filled with dark corners and unaccounted-for rooms where anything could happen.

Roberts then took us to the back staircase where everyone leaves at night and are terrified to do so. Climbing up the darkened staircase was an exhilarating event that concluded with a hazy, dark alley.

Next we returned upstairs and headed to the second floor. There wasn’t much space there, but it proved to be the most spirited.

“Natalie, that’s not funny!”

The tour was helpful in showing us around, but we needed to get down to business.

We decided to venture to the mysterious second floor for our first location. Once a friendly, welcoming dark corner was found a cool draft suddenly was present. Was it a draft? We think not.

Natalie: Immediately after the draft I spotted a round, white hazy light and turned back to Frank who seemed startled as well.

Frank: I swear I saw it too, but Natalie might have just been seeing things. She didn’t have her nerdy librarian glasses on or her contact lenses in either. Being a skeptic, this was when I began to give the ghost idea more consideration.

N: I, as a true believer all along, was really happy when Frank finally gave into ghostly beliefs.

This experience led us to the basement for our first Ouija board attempt, which was drastically unsuccessful. After trying a few questions we gave up and put it away until later.

N: Then, out of the blue, I started hearing bells or chiming. Frank looked at me pretty weird like I was nuts, which is a typical reaction from him, but luckily he started to hear them too.

F: Typically when Natalie says something ridiculous, I immediately disregard it. Soon after she made the claim, I heard it too, and was shocked at the accurateness of her remark.

The entire time we were in the basement we continuously heard loud noises from footsteps and doors slamming. Each time the noise startled us we began to believe more and more that this ghost might be around.

F: I was really starting to think something fishy was going on when I heard a particularly loud door slam. Right afterwards, Roberts ran downstairs to ask us if we heard the door shut. When he told us it came from a door that was already shut before hand, I was definitely freaked out.

N: I was pretty freaked myself. I figured it was just a box dropped by Roberts from upstairs, but, I think it definitely was something more!

F: Although my manly stature prevents me from fear, I was truly starting to believe and wanted to explore further. From there I suggested we head back up to the second floor where kooky Natalie saw the “orb.”

N: Since it was where we had our most paranormal experience, I thought it would be a good idea to whip it out and see what happens . and I’m not kooky Frank, thanks!

F: Whatever you say. Anyways, our second Ouija board attempt was much more successful, probably because we read the directions this time, and really “focused” like we were supposed to. Our first question to the ghost was “Do you want to talk with us?”

N: After a while of waiting, the board started moving to the right, at least on my side, towards “no.” I wondered, at first, if Frank was up to something, being Frank and all, but he was as shocked as I was to actually see the hand thing move.

F: Shocked is an understatement, I’m still slightly convinced Natalie may have had something to do with it.

N: You’re so full of it, Frank. Out of the two of us, you know you’d be the one to do it.

F: Sure. For some reason we decided to head back to the scary staircase with our buddy the bartender. Little did I know the ghost was preparing to strike.

N: Oh boy, and strike he did. As soon as the door opened and my asking if anyone had their keys question was ignored, the door eerily closed on us and we were locked out. I could tell Roberts was pretty disturbed by what was happening.

F: I was pretty pissed, I mean not only was this ghost lurking around, but it was locking us out of buildings and being a huge pain in the you-know-what. This is when I realized this ghost was not our friend.

After we got back in we wandered around the place one last time and we were told it was time to head out. Since we are law-abiding ghost hunters, we packed up our equipment and left.

In the end . we’re still skeptical … well Frank is

Our conclusion from this little outing is that there’s definitely something out of the ordinary happening at The Stones Throw, but we aren’t quite sure what.

N: I think that the place is haunted by a ghost. I don’t think that we have the background or the equipment with us to prove there’s something there, but Roberts and the rest of the staff said they believe there is a spirit haunting the club.

F: And I think Natalie is overreacting and there is probably a reasonable explanation for most of these occurrences. But, I wouldn’t want to be in that place alone at night, something odd is bound to happen.

So what’s the moral of this story? Don’t go to The Stones Throw by yourself when they are closed, and if you see a door about to shut, listen to the blonde girl next to you and make sure you catch it.