It’s strange to think something as earth changing as life after death
could ever be in the same room as the investigator trying to prove its
existence. The Thornton Road poltergeist is one of these rare examples
where a real investigation is undertaken by official channels and well
documented. The investigation began as a vandalism case, but then
turned into something far more incredible as time went on.
Ward
End is a quiet neighborhood in Birmingham England where people live in
peace between Saltley, Hodge Hill, and Stechford. The residential area
has a public park which was first opened in the 1890s and has been open
ever since. It’s a quiet community, and generally normal. So it was
all the stranger when the police were called in to investigate a series
of events where rocks were being thrown at one house on Thornton Road.
The occupants had investigated over the course of several days
themselves in an attempt to discover who the culprit could be. When no
source was discovered, they called the police. The stone throwing had
increased significantly since it began. It was occurring several times
a day by the time investigators arrived at the house. Roof tiles were
chipping away and falling off, and windows were being shattered.
Chief
Inspector Len Turley was a stern and respected man in the community,
who initially suspected vandals. When none were ever seen in the area,
people were posted around the house armed with automatic cameras, night
vision, flood lamps, and everything else at their disposal. Soon the
matter became a source of embarrassment for the police department and
more resources were allocated to this un-catchable crook. The
strangest thing was, the automatic cameras would go off and never catch
a human figure in the dead of night. The only things they ever saw
were rabbits, the occasional fox, and rats. Had anything even as small
as a rabbit been in the area, the motion sensing cameras would have
picked up on it. But there was nothing. Even as the police were
visiting the stone throwing would continue.
Those who say the
police were simply incompetent should be made aware that during the
investigation lasting almost a year, the police also solved five murder
cases. And yet the house on Thornton road remained a mystery even then.
Stones
that were thrown were taken away and analyzed and found to match those
in the yard. It seems likely they were somehow picked up and thrown at
the house, but no footprints were ever discovered that led authorities
to believe that somehow a person had walked into the yard unseen by
anyone else. Several of those investigating concluded jokingly that it
was as though the rocks had somehow thrown themselves. And now twenty
years later it is still clear that no one knows what could have caused
the disturbance of Thornton Road. The phantom rocks stopped being
thrown at the house long ago, but no written record of the exact date
exists.