Local coffee shop allegedly haunted
By Savannah Burnard, news writing student
The recent opening of Country No Nonsense Coffee at Willow Park has stirred up activity that owners and investigators believe could be due to paranormal entities.
In April, after purchasing and renovating the batting cages at Willow Park to include a coffee shop, owner Sarah Avalos noticed unusual activity happening, such as music turning on and off by itself and batting helmets falling off their pegs. She reached out to Spiritus Raeda Paranormal in August, and after the team investigated the shop, they said it is haunted.
“You can never say 100%, but it’s definitely haunted,” said Neicole Teare, the founder of Spiritus Raeda.
The team led a public ghost hunt on Sept. 8 and plans to keep leading them every weekend in October, Teare said.
“We’re skeptics, and that’s the way it should be — otherwise you think everything is paranormal,” Teare said. “Sometimes it makes people mad because they want it to be paranormal, but we’re like, ‘No, it’s probably this,’ and when they argue with me, I’m like, ‘Why did you call me in? You want me to just validate you, basically.’”
Some of the things happening at the shop occurred because of wiring issues, Teare said. However, there were certain things happening she said didn’t make sense, such as the motion lights turning on randomly at night.
In a text interview with Anthony Stock, a participant in the first public investigation, he said the motion lights turned on for his group.
“No one was outside when this happened, and it didn’t just happen once or twice. It happened four times,” Stock said.
The team separated participants into two groups at the event and used equipment to interact with spirits in the coffee shop, batting cages and outside near the lake.
One piece of equipment the team used was Phasmabox, a digital voice box that can be downloaded on electronic devices. It uses a digital bank for words and voices, Teare said. She said an information technology person confirmed Phasmabox is not connected to the internet.
At the event, laughs, growls, a train horn and a ringing bell were heard on the Phasmabox.
Stock said he never really believed in anything paranormal. However, throughout his life he had experiences that he couldn’t explain.
After the event, Stock said, “I definitely believe that some sort of being was there with us. If not one, then multiple.”
Mandee Christensen, the co-founder of Spiritus Raeda, said the group wants their guests to feel comfortable with them.
“We’ll break the ice for guests who are not sure if they want to participate, so they can have the best experience and interact with us,” Christensen said.
Featured photo by Bailey Rigby