Police work is already a roller‑coaster of danger, drama, and endless paperwork. Add a dash of the supernatural, and you’ve got a recipe for some truly unforgettable paranormal events. From flickering surveillance feeds to mysterious voices that seem to guide rescuers, officers have reported experiences that make even the toughest cop question reality.
10 Surveillance Camera Figure
Officer Karl Romero was on a quiet Saturday night shift at the Espanola police station in New Mexico back in 2014, watching the bank of surveillance monitors that keep the building safe. While scanning the feed aimed at the entryway, he noticed a bright white “blob” that at first looked like an insect. A closer look revealed legs beneath the glow, and suddenly Romero realized he was staring at a ghostly silhouette.
The entryway is locked behind a gate and alarm system, so a human couldn’t have slipped in unnoticed. When he reported the sighting the next day, his superiors mostly believed him. Several colleagues later chimed in, recalling odd noises and other strange sightings in the lobby. Romero later told KOAT TV that he believes the apparition could be linked to unsolved murders that have haunted the area for years.
9 Soul Collector
Lt. Frank Marra, now retired, spent countless hours sifting through the rubble of the World Trade Center towers after the September 2001 attacks. In a 2013 interview for the book Hallowed Ground, he recalled a chilling encounter: a black‑clad woman in a Red Cross uniform appeared repeatedly, carrying a tray of sandwiches and coffee for the weary responders.
Other officers at the site reported seeing large, shifting shadows and “black masses” among the debris. After consulting a medium, Marra was convinced he had witnessed a soul collector—an entity guiding spirits to the afterlife.
8 Enfield Poltergeist
In 1977, the Hodgson family of Enfield, England, found themselves at the center of a terrifying haunting. Daughter Janet reported that her brothers’ beds were shaking, and one night a loud bang echoed from the children’s bedroom. When the family investigated, they discovered a chest of drawers moving on its own, refusing to be pushed back into place.
Knocking sounds echoed through the house, and Janet was seen levitating above her bed. The case attracted famed paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. Police officer WP Carolyn Heeps, called in to assist the family, signed an affidavit confirming she saw a chair hover a foot off the floor before it drifted a full meter on its own. The police ultimately left the house, noting there was no criminal perpetrator to pursue.
The Enfield events later inspired the horror film The Conjuring 2, which even features a police officer witnessing the chair’s eerie movement.
7 Capitol Theatre Haunting
Sheriff’s deputy Dave Murphy was a die‑hard skeptic—until his stint as security guard at Salt Lake City’s Capitol Theatre in 2012 turned his world upside down. Appearing on the Syfy series Paranormal Witness, Murphy described dark shadows slithering through walls, doors slamming shut on their own, and spectral voices echoing through empty corridors.
The climax came when a full‑bodied specter materialized on the stage, and Murphy even saw a woman dressed in early‑1900s attire walk past him in the control room. The shadows, according to Murphy, eventually tried to force him out of the building and physically assaulted him.
Blair Fuller, the administrative manager of the Salt Lake County Center for the Arts, reported similar phenomena—elevators opening by themselves and file cabinets opening and closing. She believes the ghost of a 17‑year‑old usher who perished in a 1947 fire is the likely culprit.
6 Silbury Hill Beings
In July 2009, an off‑duty police sergeant cruising near Silbury Hill in Wiltshire, England, stopped short when he saw three figures in white coveralls standing in a field, examining a fresh crop circle. The beings were towering—over two meters tall—with striking blond hair.
As the sergeant approached, a static‑like hum filled the air. The “officers” noticed him, then sprinted away faster than any human could, vanishing into the night. The sergeant later contacted UFO experts Andrew Russell and Colin Andrews, who investigated the incident. Wiltshire police declined comment, stating it was a personal matter because the sergeant was off duty.
5 Mysterious Voice
In 2015, 25‑year‑old Jennifer Groesbeck’s car collided with a cement barrier and flipped into a river, trapping her 18‑month‑old daughter Lily upside down. A fisherman discovered the wreck fourteen hours later and alerted authorities.
Officer Tyler Beddoes was among the first responders. As he and three fellow officers pulled an arm through the submerged vehicle’s window and dove in, they suddenly heard a woman’s voice urging them onward. Fueled by the mysterious call, they hurried to the car, only to find Jennifer already deceased.
When they finally righted the vehicle, Lily was discovered hanging upside down but alive. Her eyelids fluttered, giving the officers hope. She survived after emergency care. The source of the voice remains unknown, but the officers credit it with accelerating their rescue effort.
4 Don Decker And The Devil
In 1983, inmate Don Decker was granted compassionate leave to attend his grandfather’s funeral and stayed with family friends in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. While washing his hands in an upstairs bathroom, Decker suddenly fainted and fell to the floor.
When he reappeared downstairs, his companion Bob Kieffer noted deep scratches on Decker’s wrists. Decker claimed he’d been visited by an old man wearing a crown, and soon after, water began dripping from the roof and walls—despite the plumbing being located on the opposite side of the house.
Water seemed to rain down inside the house while simultaneously flowing upward from the floor. Decker entered a trance‑like state, prompting Kieffer to call the police. Officers John Baujan and Richard Wolbert arrived; Baujan believed something supernatural was afoot, while Wolbert left without filing a report.
Subsequent officers, William Davies and John Rundle, returned despite Wolbert’s orders and witnessed a golden cross burning Decker’s skin, as well as the inmate levitating and being hurled across the room. Later, at the prison, water rose up the cell walls and a silicone‑like substance appeared on a supervisor’s shirt. A plumber summoned to the station fled in distress. Many officers concluded Decker was possessed by the devil, granting him eerie powers.
3 Rendlesham Forest Incident
Between Christmas and New Year’s 1980, RAF Bentwaters’ senior security officer James Penniston led a police team to investigate an alleged aircraft crash in England’s Rendlesham Forest. What they found was no ordinary plane but a triangular craft perched on three legs.
Penniston’s official report noted radios malfunctioning near the craft, blue and yellow lights reflecting off its surface, and an electric crackle in the surrounding air. After documenting symbols on the side, the lights intensified, and the craft lifted silently, gliding through the forest before vanishing at incredible speed.
More than 80 police officers were present, all bearing witness to the craft’s departure. The incident was swiftly classified as top secret, and participants were warned never to discuss what they saw.
2 Indiana Demon House
In 2014, a police captain in Gary, Indiana, vouched for the authenticity of a haunting at a house where mother Latoya Ammons and grandmother Rosa Campbell claimed their three children were possessed by malevolent entities. The children allegedly levitated, walked backward up walls, and displayed bizarre footprints throughout the home.
A photograph surfaced showing a mysterious figure on the porch, which the local police department distributed with a note that the house was empty at the time. Although the image was later debunked as a hoax created with an app, the captain, priests, and social workers persisted in believing demons roamed the house.
Psychics arrived, asserting that over 200 demons were inhabiting the property and possessing the children, causing bulging eyes, deepened voices, and eerie smiles. The family’s doctor argued the children’s behavior stemmed from delusional influences encouraged by their mother. After a brief removal, the family was reunited and relocated, reporting no further paranormal activity. The house was demolished in January 2016 after being purchased by Zak Bagans, executive producer of Ghost Adventures.
1 Devil’s Peak Incident
Maurice “Frenchy” Theriault endured a harrowing childhood marked by abuse and a mysterious, unexplained event in his family barn. As an adult, he discovered unsettling abilities—knowledge of subjects he never studied and extraordinary strength.
After leaving the army, Frenchy settled on a farm in Warren, Massachusetts, with his wife. By 1985, the household was plagued by inexplicable blood stains, disembodied voices, and objects that appeared and vanished without a trace. Fires erupted spontaneously, prompting Frenchy to hand his firearms to the local sheriff for safety.
Witnesses—including a police officer—reported Frenchy materializing in one room while his wife saw him in another, only for him to reappear where he originally stood. Ed and Lorraine Warren were called in, and Bishop Robert McKenna performed an exorcism that nearly claimed Ed’s life but ultimately succeeded.
Frenchy’s troubles persisted, culminating in his arrest for sexual abuse of a minor. The bizarre phenomena surrounding his life remain a chilling example of paranormal events intersecting with law enforcement.