Brown Robed Figure
Witness: Dan Murphy
Location: Fremont, California
Date of Encounter: December 2002
I am a 56-year-old Vietnam veteran and business consultant. I do not do drugs, and do not understand the following story.
We used to live in a 2 story, 10-year-old house in Fremont, California. We lived there until May of 2003.
In December 2002, just a few days before Christmas, I woke up about 5:30 or 6:00 AM and walked over to the bedroom window. I parted the vertical blinds and cursed under my breath because it was still raining like it had been for days.
As I turned away from the window my body chilled from head to toe. Standing right in the middle of our bedroom doorway was this huge ghost dressed in a hooded brown robe. The guy was at least 7 feet tall and filled the whole doorway. Where his face should have been in the big hood was just like a swirling mass of energy and you also couldn't see any hands or feet — but he totally filled the whole doorway. As I looked at him he extended his arms forward like he was offering me this short staff or rod that he was holding — it was maybe 24 inches long.
Then I turned my head away for a moment, and when I looked back he was gone. I left my wife asleep as I drove to work — still kind of in shock and debating whether to tell my wife. I decided to and called her on my cell phone. She was silent for a few moments then said, "Oh my God — That explains it! I thought I was dreaming, but I opened my eyes after you left and this huge figure in a long brown robe and hood was leaning toward me from your side of the bed like he was offering me this short rod or stick. Then when I sat up in bed and he was gone!"
Now we were both feeling kind of strange. That night on the way home from work my wife stopped to use a gas station restroom — something she'd never done before since she only worked 20 minutes from home. When she arrived home she pulled into the garage and pushed the button to close the garage door behind her. As soon as she stepped into the house she could see that it had been robbed.
Our son, Colin, who lived with us had come home 5 minutes earlier and had surprised two armed gunmen up on the second floor in the dark. Colin ran out of the house with the robbers behind him. They got away but hadn't stolen anything. If my wife had arrived home just a few minutes earlier, as she usually did, she would have locked herself in the house with two armed robbers.
I do not understand what has happened. Who was the brown robed figure? Was he there that morning to warn us about what was going to happen that night?
He never appeared again, but that night Colin reminded us that several weeks earlier he had been alone with his girlfriend in the living room sitting on the sofa. Something caused him to get the chills — as he looked up he saw this robed figure looking down at them from the railing in the loft above them. They quickly left the house. When Colin originally told me his story, I had told him that he had a very active imagination. Then a couple weeks later the robed figure appeared to me and then my wife. That night as I was cutting sections of round (rod-like) wood dowels to put in the window sashes, I got the chills again. Was the guy trying to hand me a staff or rod to try and tell me to put it in the windows? If anyone has info on ghosts in hooded, brown robes with a rod or staff I'd sure like to hear it. An Asian lady friend told me about a friend of hers who knew of this kind of thing and called him a Guardian Angel that somebody has to give you or will to you.
