A shopper at a Goodwill in Westchester, California, says a small boy steered them away from a vintage doll, and moments later a mark that looked like a tiny bite appeared on their wrist.
The account comes from A.G. Peterson, who shared it in a Quora space for ghost stories. Peterson says they have been in a good job for 25 years and describes the experience as something they cannot explain. The post has pulled in more than 120,000 views and over 1,100 upvotes, and the comment section quickly turned into a swap meet for haunted object stories. Some readers saw bug bites. Others saw something much stranger. Here is what Peterson reported and how the thread reacted.
The Boy at the Shelf
Peterson was browsing cups and clothes with their son when a boy of about six walked up and started chatting. He asked if Peterson liked a jewelry box, and the two traded finds, with the boy showing items and Peterson showing toys.
Then Peterson picked up a very old pair of Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls. A newer Raggedy Ann sat on the shelf nearby. When Peterson held up the older Ann for the boy to see, he said one word: “Scawey.” Peterson asked whether that meant skipping this doll, and the boy shook his head no and handed over the newer one instead.
Peterson put the dolls back and joined the checkout line with their son. That is when things changed. “My wrist started burning,” Peterson wrote, and a glance down showed “a small mouth impression with little crooked teeth.” Peterson snapped a photo.
What the Comments Said
Skeptics showed up fast. Several commenters said the marks looked like bedbug bites, pointing out that nobody knows where thrift store items were stored or for how long. One thought scabies, and another figured scratching changed the look by the time the photo was taken. Others pushed back. One commenter said the marks do not resemble bedbug bites at all and told readers to compare pictures for themselves.
Peterson answered the bug theory directly. The dolls were 30 to 40 years old, and Peterson does not think bugs could have attacked in the short time the dolls were held. Peterson also never calls the boy a ghost or says what became of him, though the setting of the thread invites that question.
Believers had stories to add. One commenter said the Goodwill on Sepulveda Boulevard is haunted, with a spirit that attaches to different items depending on what is on the shelf. Peterson called the building odd and added that “something is definitely off.”
Annabelle, the Raggedy Ann Everyone Knows
The Raggedy Ann detail sent several commenters straight to Annabelle, and they had a point. The doll at the center of America’s most famous haunted doll story was a Raggedy Ann, not the porcelain doll from the movies. According to Annabelle’s Real Story: The Connecticut Doll That Divided a Family, the tale began in 1970, when a Hartford nursing student received the doll as a gift. The doll reportedly started moving from room to room and leaving messages on parchment paper. Ed and Lorraine Warren took custody after an exorcism, and Annabelle ended up in their Occult Museum in Connecticut, inside a special case with a sign warning visitors not to open it. The Conjuring films later changed her look to a porcelain doll to avoid copyright issues.
Skeptics note that the Annabelle story leans heavily on Ed Warren’s word, and that no evidence has turned up of the nursing students who supposedly owned the doll. Peterson, for the record, said the boy was far too young to know about Annabelle.
Final Thoughts
A burning wrist, a bite-shaped mark, and a six-year-old’s one-word warning make a tidy story, and the timing is what sticks. Skeptics can fairly point out that a mark noticed in a checkout line could have been there before the shopper walked in, and that a photo shared online is hard to judge. Whether it was pests, a rash, or something else in that building, Peterson says they will never pick up a vintage Raggedy Ann again.
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