Policing The Paranormal

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Law enforcement officers are known to be highly skilled and highly trained observers of the natural world and human behavior. As a rule, they really don’t like dealing with anything that is outside their tightly, well controlled box. When that call comes through, they know that lives could very well be on the line. Nevertheless, occasionally, a cop finds themselves in a situation where the rules of the natural world no longer apply and they find themselves face to face with the bizarre. Here are three stories of police officers who found themselves dealing with something they couldn’t cuff and stuff.

Night Chase Into The Unknown

Kenneth Downs, a cop fresh out of the academy, was granted the dream job of a lifetime. He had been partnered with veteran cop, Ken Graham, and would be zipping around the skies of Jefferson County, Kentucky, as an air patrol officer. However, on the night of February 28, 1993 Downs and Graham would find themselves chasing down something that could only be described as otherworldly.

Not long after beginning their shift around midnight, a call came over the radio that patrol cars were being dispatched to a burglar alarm at a local factory. Graham quickly responded and said he and Downs were on their way to offer air support if needed.

As they neared the factory, Graham was the first to spot a large orange pulsating ball of light hovering over a tree. Thinking this was no burglary but a fire, Downs prepared to call the fire department when the unimaginable occurred. The ball of light swiftly shot up into the sky at an unthinkable rate of speed. But it was what happened next that convinced both cops something strange was afoot in the skies of northern Kentucky.

As Graham and Downs circled the factory, undoubtedly mystified by what they saw, the ball of light inexplicably materialized in front of the chopper, hovered for a minute as if it was studying the two officers and then shot off into the night. Graham and Downs gave chase and estimated whatever the light was cruising at over 130 mph. They watched in awe as the light performed aerial acrobatics that would be impossible for any man-made craft to pull off. The ball then shot up once again at a dizzying speed and vanished into the starry night.

After the strange encounter, the local media got wind of the encounter and a media circus ensued. When questioned, Graham and Downs insisted that what they saw could not be explained by just a mere investigation. When all was said and done, both devoted cops went back to their duties of protecting the citizens of Jefferson County, Kentucky.

Death And The Magic Bullet

The manhunt was on in the northern wilds of Vancouver, British Columbia in March, 1985. For several weeks, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were hunting down Michael Oros, an American draft dodger who brutally slayed a local trapper. Oros was seen near an isolated lake and special trackers were flown in by chopper and immediately went about the business of tracking down the murderer. Fortune finally smiled on the RCMP when Mike Buday and his partner, Garry Rodgers, spotted Oros walking just outside the tree line. What came next was truly unexplainable.

When Oros saw the two cops, he whipped his gun out and squeezed off a shot. Buday was struck and was dead before his body hit the ground. With his partner lying dead at his feet, Rodgers spun around and without aiming shot and killed the wanted man. Upon inspection of the dead killer, Rodgers was baffled as to how he managed to take Oros down. His bullet would have had to pass through several trees and heavy brush to find its mark. Rodgers’ bullet somehow shattered the laws of physics to bring a criminal to justice. That would be a pretty neat trick, but the local Tlingit people had a different theory that reached from beyond the grave.

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While on the run, Oros had camped upon and desecrated holy ground. According to the Tlingit, an extraordinarily powerful shaman was buried on the land and his spirit was awakened by the evil man who dared to desecrate his final resting place. The shaman got his vengeance by guiding the bullet that took down Michael Oros in the woods of British Columbia. Garry Rodgers retired from his position in the RCMP. When questioned about the Native people’s theory, he neither confirmed nor denied whether he believed that the Tlingit shaman was responsible for helping him to bring down Oros. 

Chief Glamann: Accidental Ghost Hunter

Recently in the Houses Of Horror series, I recounted the harrowing tale of the Tallman family. In the late 1980s, the Tallmans and their children were subjected to a string of terrifying events in their Horicon, Wisconsin, home. The terror that ensued sent the family fleeing for their lives. What I didn’t add was how Douglas Glamann, Chief of Police, became not only the family’s protector but in the process, an accidental ghost hunter.

When Glamann met with the family, he heard how they met with nightmarish specters and unexplained phenomena sure to frighten even the bravest of souls. The police chief approached the investigation of their claims with a healthy dose of skepticism which would soon be challenged and ultimately turned into a belief in a power greater than himself.

Although Glamann never witnessed the grotesque specter of the cronish old woman or the dreadful black mass, Glamann did have an experience he couldn’t explain. Upon a visit to the house accompanied by a member of the clergy, the strange presented itself. As the two men stood in the living room, the telephone began to ring. Thinking someone was playing games, Glamann unplugged the phone. While it sat on the table the phone let out an eerie ring that filled the house chilling everyone to the bone. Glamann had the phone removed. One thing the chief of police couldn’t remove was the feeling of being watched by some unknown sinister presence.

Looking back on the bizarre adventure, Glamann was convinced that something evil resided in that house. He went on record to say the Tallman family was completely open about what they endured and at no time did they ever accept money for their story, even when it was featured on the popular television show, Unsolved Mysteries.

Stories of police officers encountering the paranormal are rare. The above three stories about policing the paranormal are just a select few that have been recorded.

If you found the content in this article to be of any value to your paranormal studies, please let us know in the comments below. Feel free to share this article with your friends as well because if you found it interesting, they might too.

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About Rick Hale 106 Articles
Rick Hale became interested in anomalous phenomenon at an early age after encountering an apparition in his grandparent's home. Rick is the author of "The Geek's Guide To The Strange and Unusual: Poltergeists, Ghost and Demons," and "Behold! Shocking True Tales Off Terror...And Some Other Spooky Stuff." Rick has been published in Haunted Times Magazine, Paranormal Underground Magazine, The Supernatural Magazine, Spookyisles.com and Legends Magazine. Rick appeared in Ghost Tapes 2 and Ghost Tapes: The Series found at YouTube.com.

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