The Scarecrow and Mr. Lincoln

Witness: Doug Kruger
Location: New Bern, North Carolina
Date of Encounter: June 2006

My oldest son is an airline pilot and my wife and myself went to North Carolina to visit him and his wife. They owned a pottery business and leased a store in downtown Old New Bern, which used to be an old city hall prior to and during the Civil War. I have always been interested in history and looked forward to seeing their new business, which was going very well for them. My son wanted to show me the upstairs to this very old building. One night while the girls were painting pottery, we decided to take a look around. Now I must say that I have always been interested in ghosts, the paranormal or whatever you would call it, but never had an opportunity to investigate, so I took this as a chance I might not have again. We looked all throughout the building and made plans to get cameras etc. and come and do some investigating. After looking through the whole building, I was intrigued with a small room that after looking at it for some time, left me with the feeling it was maybe a courtroom with a raised pedestal for a judge's bench on one end.

Now, as I said before, the girls were downstairs and knowing there were mice upstairs, they would never ever come up for any reason. My son suggested taking one of his cats with us, as he said he read they were supposed to be sensitive, so he put a leash on one, and we went up. He went up to the fourth floor and I gravitated to this "courtroom" on the third floor. The first strange thing that happened to us was that on the way to the small courtroom up a winding staircase, I saw an inscription in black paint on whitewash, it was very old, and it read "Three and Thrice, Three Cheers for Abraham Lincoln." Now I know this sounds really weird, but it absolutely looked authentic and when I look at it to this day, it still gives me chills. Yes, you see, after our "experiences" I took the liberty of removing the board and sending it home to Minnesota. My wife wouldn't let me bring it on the plane with us considering the "other" that ended up in the box with it. But back to the room… My son first took the cat with him and I set a single candle on a fireplace mantle about two-thirds down the hall from the bench area. I had my back to the wall and sat on a camping chair we brought up for the occasion. Keeping in mind the inscription on the way up on the wall, I started talking as if there might be someone from the past still around. This went for about half an hour at which time I heard my son coming down from the fourth floor. He asked me if I had anything happen and I told him no. He said the cat was bugging him and asked if I would take it for a while. I did so and said to him I'd like to spend a little more time in here. He said okay, and proceeded to go back up to the fourth floor. Now I put the cat on my lap and it was intently watching the candle on the mantle to my right. I started talking again and after about 10 minutes got absolutely no response. I then stupidly and amateurishly deduced that I wasn't getting through to anyone who might have been there. I started to make statements that this "entity" was a coward and didn't deserve to wear the military uniform. I must say in retrospect, that this was a rather risky course of action. I was also demanding by this time to give me a sign if he was really here. At one point after calling this "being" a coward, there was, what I can only describe, as if you had a black cat firecracker go off to my left and only about three feet away. Now normally, being pretty much a skeptic to these things, I would write it off to my imagination. But when there's no flash of any kind and the cat, while sitting nicely on my lap mesmerized by the candle to my right, jumped up and freaked out to my left, and had every hair on his body standing up, I must tell you, it got my attention and as I recall, I said, "Good one!"

I heard nothing from my son as I would normally hear him moving around toward me, so it couldn't have been anything caused by him. I then started back in on this stupid line of statements to get another response. I said, "That was a good one, but give me some real evidence." To my dismay, there were no further episodes, or so I thought. After some period of time of silence, I heard my son making his way back down and when he reached me, I asked him if he had heard the bang, which he replied he hadn't. I explained what had happened and we decided to call it a night and started to go back downstairs. When we reached the last doorway before the stairs to the store we had to side step a Halloween Scarecrow about three-feet tall standing in the doorway. I said to my son, "Good one, trying to scare me, huh?" He said, "What are you talking about? I was above you on the fourth floor, and would have had to come by you to place it there."

When we both realized neither one of us did it, he freaked out and kicked it into the other room. Then we went downstairs and told the girls what happened. After about a half hour, I realized that this was the proof I was demanding and told my son we needed to go back up there and get the scarecrow. I also told him that I wanted to get the inscription. We went back up and retrieved them both and I have them to this day. My wife won't let me keep them at our house, so they've had to live out at my airplane hanger.

I know this sounds incredible, but I am a different person because of it, and this is the first time I've told any group of my experience.