A fudge shop in Freeport, Maine says strange noises have followed the owners since the day they moved in, and a team of paranormal investigators now says the building is haunted.
Kathy and Jim Welles opened their second “What the Actual Fudge?” location at 7 Mill Street, inside the E.B. Mallet Office building, which dates to 1888. The couple makes small batches of handmade fudge there. They did not expect a haunting to come with the building, and they certainly did not expect to end up hosting a crew of ghost hunters overnight.
What the Owners Heard
Kathy says the noises started right after they moved in. Doors that do not exist seem to open and close, something bangs in the attic, and footsteps climb the stairs when nobody is there. It is scariest when one of them is alone in the shop.
One morning, Jim was getting ready to open when parchment paper started flying off the racks and cascading to the floor. He yelled at it to knock it off, and it stopped. Both owners say there was no draft in the store that could have done it.
A Night With G.H.O.S.T.
An employee with a strong interest in the paranormal wanted to find out whether something was really going on, so she contacted the Ghost Hunters and Occult Study Team, known as G.H.O.S.T. About half a dozen members showed up and spent the night in the empty shop. They offered their services for free.
Lead investigator Matt Greenleaf said very little happened at first, then activity started trickling in. The team recorded footsteps and pipes banging in the shop and in the attic above it. At one point they caught what sounded like the words “get out.” Greenleaf said the group starts by trying to prove there is no ghost, and only looks for a paranormal cause when something cannot be explained.
By the end of the night, the team had several pieces of evidence to share. Their conclusion was that one spirit in the attic wants to be left alone, while another downstairs may be a little girl. Kathy and Jim listened to the audio and watched the video, and said it matched what they have heard since moving in. “The sounds are very real,” Kathy said.
The Skeptic’s View
Of course, there are conventional explanations to consider. Old buildings make noise. Pipes knock, attics settle, and stairs creak, and a recording made in a quiet, empty shop can sound a lot like footsteps or even speech when you are listening for it. The parchment paper is harder to explain with plumbing, though Jim is the only one who saw it happen.
Whether the cause is an 1888 building doing what old buildings do or something more, the owners clearly heard what they heard, and the recordings sound familiar to them.
Where It Stands Now
G.H.O.S.T. says the building is haunted. The team hopes more local businesses will invite them in so they can eventually put together a “ghost passport” that lets visitors stop at the haunted spots around town.
As for the owners, Kathy says who knows what to believe, but it has always been fun. Jim says he never really disbelieved in ghosts, and now he is pretty sure they exist. The couple’s other shop, at the Maine Mall, is not believed to have any ghosts.
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