There’s something so cozy about the idea of antique shopping. Picture a Saturday afternoon with an iced coffee in hand browsing through the aisles of your local curio shop. You come across an interesting piece of furniture, an old oil painting or a handcrafted wine cabinet, and before you know it that small bit of treasure is sitting in the trunk of your car.
I have to admit, that would be a charming Saturday afternoon. Which ultimately explains why a lot of my own furniture has been thrifted or purchased second hand.
What can I say, I love the look of let’s call it eclectic interior design. But at the same time, this look does come with a few drawbacks.
For one, items that come with so much history also often possess structural issues or cosmetic damage. And let’s not forget the elephant in the room, sometimes that very history can be dark if even nefarious.
Pause
Now I’m not saying that my own antique collection is the reason behind the on again off again sort of activity that my husband and I have experienced in our home over the years. But what I will say is that, at least for me, antiquing is every bit as chilling as it is charming.
Because at the end of the you can never truly know the history behind these thrifted treasures. Nor can you ever be sure what it is you’re bringing home.
I’m Courtney Hayes and you’re listening to haunts. Stay tuned…
Like many of us, Stephen Lancaster and his fiancé, Christina Parker, have a keen interest in antique shopping. Over the years, they’ve spent countless Saturday afternoons walking the aisle of second hand shops. They've dedicated hundreds of Sunday mornings to browsing estate sales, looking for that one of a kind find to bring back home with them.
On one of these occasions back in 2016, the couple was browsing an antique shop in Wallace, North Carolina. It was there that they came across a small chest with a broken lock on the front of it.
The box itself could have been an antique in its own right, with its ornate wood carving and its tarnished fastener. But the couple got the distinct impression that something had been concealed inside that chest, and it was that inclination that piqued their interest.
Pause
Now as a quick aside here, it’s worth mentioning that many antiquarians take an interest and often hunt for very specific items. I for example am always on the hunt for secondhand furniture, specifically that with an oak staining. My mother-in-law is always on the lookout for unfinished quilt tops. And I have more than a few friends out on the hunt for vintage clothing.
That said, Stephen and Christina were no exception to this rule of thumb. Although, their growing collection of antiques consisted of items that admittedly a little uncomfortable.
You see, on this day in particular—as they were on pretty much every visit they made to the flea market—the couple had been on the look out old dolls. So I’m sure you can imagine their surprised delight when they picked up the chest of the shelf, opened it, and found a doll sitting inside.
Pause
At first the couple was a bit taken aback. In fact they weren’t even sure if the owners of the shop knew the doll was there let alone for sale. I mean, it had been hidden away inside what looked to be a lockable box. So really what were the chances that the store owners knew that this particular item was in their inventory?
Even still, the couple brought the box and its contents up the register. And when they did, that found that the women behind the counter were visibly uncomfortable.
They knew the doll was there alright, and it didn’t seem like that wanted anything to do with it. That fact was infinitely clear when Stephen asked if the doll was for sale. The question went unaswered for a momenet then finally one of the women broke the silence. "Its for sale," she told him. "But saddness follows that doll everywhere it goes."
I can imagine that this assertion may have been a bit appalling for Stephen. The way the woman behind the counter spoke about the doll made it sound like it was capable of having its own thoughts, its own emotions. But that simply couldn’t be. I mean, it was just a doll right?
Well according to the woman who sold them the doll—because spoiler alert, it does end up walking out the door with Stephen and Christina—this particular antique had a rather dark history. And it all began when an expectant mother received the doll as a gift.
Pause
It was back in the 1960s, the woman behind the counter told them, that the original owner of the doll was pregnant with twins. She had gone into the hospital while in labor. Then tragically during the delivery her son was still born—her daughter on the other hand was born healthy without any further complications. So in the days that followed, the woman and her daughter were discharged from the hospital—going home with this gifted doll in hand.
Years later, the family faced another tragedy when their home caught fire. The girls mother was actually killed during the incident. But by some miracle she and the doll made it out unscathed.
She grew up and eventually found herself standing in that very antique shop. She gave the woman behind the counter this brief back story then made a donation to the store, one that came inside a locked wooden box.
Pause
Stephen had to admit it was spooky story. But he had always been intrigued by the paranormal and Christina was still adamant on adding the doll to her collection. So after a bit of back and forth they paid the woman behind the counter and left—taking the doll home with them, as well as god knows what else.
It’s strange in a funny sort of way, how Stephen describes his initial reaction to the doll. He said it was cute and ugly at the same time—which sort of checks out given the item’s grisly.
I mean, the doll had supposedly witnessed mulitple untimely deaths. It even survived a house fire. So it only makes sense for this seemingly innocent toy to have a sinister air about it.
That said, Stephen like myself, maintained a certain level of skepticism. He was interested in the paranormal, sure, but when it came to haunted objects that whole notion felt a bit too far beyond the realm of normalcy for Stephen Lancaster to put his faith into.
He stood firm in this belief even as he and Christina walked out of the store with the woman behind the counter calling after them to be careful. But that was all before they got the doll home and began to live with it day in and day out.
Pause
Later that night, after this item was placed on a shelf alongside an assortment of other dolls and antiques, Stephen began to do some research on this so-called haunted artifact. And in doing so he discovered that the doll was once somewhat of a mascot for the Mattel Corporation and that it was originally called by the name Maddie.
Stephen and Christina, however, didn’t think this was a very fitting name for their new found companion. I mean there was nothing normal about it. It was neither doll nor man. Not really, that is. So they decided to call him Norman.
Like a dark cloud rolling in of the coast of the Carolina’s, a storm of otherworldly proportions began to brew over the Lancaster residence. At first drizzling subtly then pouring down on them all at once.
Pause
It began only a few nights later. Everyone in the house was asleep, Norman was still sitting in his place on the shelf alongside dozens of other dolls, when at approximately 4 o’clock on the morning a loud pounding echoed from the front door.
It was Stephen who climbed out of bed after he can Christina asked one another who would be knocking so incessantly on their door at such an early hour of the morning. Although this question went unanswered because by the time Stephen made it to the front door the knocking suddenly ended.
Looking out the window he found that no one was standing there on the porch—which was odd given how abruptly the knocking had gone quiet. I mean, whoever it is who had been pounding away on the door had an awful impatience about them. So Stephen found it hard to believe that they would have just given up and walked away—and even if they had they couldn’t have just disappeared that quickly.
So just to be sure he opened the door, peeking his head out into the night in an effort to catch a glimpse of this nighttime knocker. And yet all he found was an empty doorstep set against the backdrop of a quiet street.
Now I should probably mention that Stephen and Christina were relatively new to their neighborhood. In fact they had only recently moved into the house they had brought Norman the Doll home to. So after the incident with the door, well suffice it to say they were suitably creeped out.
Was it a teenaged neighbor playing a trick? Was it a home invader casing the house with intentions of returning later on? It could it be that ghost stories about Norman were true?
I can imagine these questions were running through Stephen’s head as he set up around the house. There was one in nearly every room—aside from the bathrooms and his stepdaughter’s room—as well as one on the front porch.
In other words there was really no where for a home intruder, or even a ghost to hide. If anyone was trying to break in—if anything strange was unfolding in the home—they would be able to catch it on tape. Or so they thought.
Pause
It was a couple days later when Christina’s 15 year old daughter, Hannah, came running down the stairs in search of her parents. She was dripping wet and frantic telling them someone was in the house with them.
She had been up in her bathroom taking a shower when she heard the sound of the doorknob twisting open. Only a second later, she saw a dark figure walk across her shower door.
Admittedly she thought it was Christina coming to get something, but when she poked her head out to ask her mother what she needed, Hannah found that no one was there. That’s when she bolted from the shower in hysterics. And honestly, rightfully so.
Pause
Now given the previous incident when the front door, Stephen decided he wasn’t going to take any chances with a potential home invader. So he went around checking the house from top to bottom only to find that the three of them were utterly alone.
There were no signs of a break in, and out of respect for Hannah’s privacy, there was no camera in the bathroom to document the incident either. It also couldn’t have been Christina or Stephen as the two of them had been downstairs in the living room the entire time. In other words, the family was at a loss and things only seemed to get stranger as the night went on.
Pause
Hannah had been asleep in her bedroom—her parents asleep in their’s—when she awoke to the feeling of her blanket being tugged from her body. It started out as just that, a light tugging. Then it evolved into a more intense yanking, until finally she looked down and saw something—an invisible force like hands pressing into the mattress.
Hannah screamed, Christina and Stephen come running. But without surveillance of the bedroom, none of them were really sure what to make of the incident. So in the end the whole thing was written off as a frightening but seemingly innocent dream.
Now at least in the beginning, Stephen didn’t make any connection between the strange goings on in the house and Norman the doll. And honestly, why would he? I mean, he was after all a skeptic when it came to haunted objects and his cameras hadn’t captured anything otherworldly on tape.
In other words, he had no reason to believe that these events were paranormal in nature and it wasn’t a natural reaction for him to blame them on a toy of all things. That is at least until his own grandchildren came asking questions.
Pause
A few days had passed since the incident in Hannah’s bedroom and Stephen’s grandkids were coming out to the house for a visit. When they arrived they saw Norman sitting up on the shelf and being that this was the newest doll in their collection they had taken a keen interest him.
That said, Stephen didn’t think much of it when his grandson asked if Norman could sit and watch TV with him and his sister. It was an innocent request to play with what at that time had always been a seemingly innocent doll. So taking the doll from the shelf, he handed it over to his grandson, then turned his back to the room and began to surf the web on his computer.
Only a few minutes had passed when Stephen heard his granddaughter screaming from behind him. And when he turned to ask what was wrong he, the girl told him that Norman had moved all on his own.
Like a flash of lightning, Stephen made the connection. The strange activity, now that you mention it, started right around the time that he and Christina had brought Norman the Doll into their home. And this time activity occurred in full view of his surveillance cameras.
So he turned back to his computer and opened the camera’s app, watching in horror as he uncovered what his granddaughter had seen with her own eyes. While it was sitting there between his grandkids on the bed, Norman the doll actually turned his head fixing his menacing gaze directly on Stephen Lancaster.
Now in spite of what you might expect, this discovery didn’t prompt Stephen and Christina from getting rid of the doll in it’s entirety. Nor did it stop them from spending their Saturdays at antique shops.
Today as a matter of fact Norman the doll remains in Stephen’s possession. And as it just so happens he documents the ongoing activity over on his YouTube Channel which I’ll have linked down in the show notes.
So if you’re feeling brave enough, you can go experience this haunting for yourself. That is unless you’re hoping to go out and find a doll the likes of Norman to add to your own collection.
Should that be the case, let this story can serve as a reminder and a warning that vintage clothes, second hand furniture, and unfinished quilt tops aren’t always the only items in stock at our favorite antique stores. Nor are the treasures we find ever truly what meets the eye.
Instead, if we look close enough, we might just discover the residue of something beyond ourselves—almost like a fine layer of dust that’s yet to be fanned away. Whether that be a rich history that’s been locked behind decades of lost time or the remaining energy of something cute yet ugly hidden away in a small wooden box.
I have to admit, that would be a charming Saturday afternoon. Which ultimately explains why a lot of my own furniture has been thrifted or purchased second hand.
What can I say, I love the look of let’s call it eclectic interior design. But at the same time, this look does come with a few drawbacks.
For one, items that come with so much history also often possess structural issues or cosmetic damage. And let’s not forget the elephant in the room, sometimes that very history can be dark if even nefarious.
Pause
Now I’m not saying that my own antique collection is the reason behind the on again off again sort of activity that my husband and I have experienced in our home over the years. But what I will say is that, at least for me, antiquing is every bit as chilling as it is charming.
Because at the end of the you can never truly know the history behind these thrifted treasures. Nor can you ever be sure what it is you’re bringing home.
I’m Courtney Hayes and you’re listening to haunts. Stay tuned…
Like many of us, Stephen Lancaster and his fiancé, Christina Parker, have a keen interest in antique shopping. Over the years, they’ve spent countless Saturday afternoons walking the aisle of second hand shops. They've dedicated hundreds of Sunday mornings to browsing estate sales, looking for that one of a kind find to bring back home with them.
On one of these occasions back in 2016, the couple was browsing an antique shop in Wallace, North Carolina. It was there that they came across a small chest with a broken lock on the front of it.
The box itself could have been an antique in its own right, with its ornate wood carving and its tarnished fastener. But the couple got the distinct impression that something had been concealed inside that chest, and it was that inclination that piqued their interest.
Pause
Now as a quick aside here, it’s worth mentioning that many antiquarians take an interest and often hunt for very specific items. I for example am always on the hunt for secondhand furniture, specifically that with an oak staining. My mother-in-law is always on the lookout for unfinished quilt tops. And I have more than a few friends out on the hunt for vintage clothing.
That said, Stephen and Christina were no exception to this rule of thumb. Although, their growing collection of antiques consisted of items that admittedly a little uncomfortable.
You see, on this day in particular—as they were on pretty much every visit they made to the flea market—the couple had been on the look out old dolls. So I’m sure you can imagine their surprised delight when they picked up the chest of the shelf, opened it, and found a doll sitting inside.
Pause
At first the couple was a bit taken aback. In fact they weren’t even sure if the owners of the shop knew the doll was there let alone for sale. I mean, it had been hidden away inside what looked to be a lockable box. So really what were the chances that the store owners knew that this particular item was in their inventory?
Even still, the couple brought the box and its contents up the register. And when they did, that found that the women behind the counter were visibly uncomfortable.
They knew the doll was there alright, and it didn’t seem like that wanted anything to do with it. That fact was infinitely clear when Stephen asked if the doll was for sale. The question went unaswered for a momenet then finally one of the women broke the silence. "Its for sale," she told him. "But saddness follows that doll everywhere it goes."
I can imagine that this assertion may have been a bit appalling for Stephen. The way the woman behind the counter spoke about the doll made it sound like it was capable of having its own thoughts, its own emotions. But that simply couldn’t be. I mean, it was just a doll right?
Well according to the woman who sold them the doll—because spoiler alert, it does end up walking out the door with Stephen and Christina—this particular antique had a rather dark history. And it all began when an expectant mother received the doll as a gift.
Pause
It was back in the 1960s, the woman behind the counter told them, that the original owner of the doll was pregnant with twins. She had gone into the hospital while in labor. Then tragically during the delivery her son was still born—her daughter on the other hand was born healthy without any further complications. So in the days that followed, the woman and her daughter were discharged from the hospital—going home with this gifted doll in hand.
Years later, the family faced another tragedy when their home caught fire. The girls mother was actually killed during the incident. But by some miracle she and the doll made it out unscathed.
She grew up and eventually found herself standing in that very antique shop. She gave the woman behind the counter this brief back story then made a donation to the store, one that came inside a locked wooden box.
Pause
Stephen had to admit it was spooky story. But he had always been intrigued by the paranormal and Christina was still adamant on adding the doll to her collection. So after a bit of back and forth they paid the woman behind the counter and left—taking the doll home with them, as well as god knows what else.
It’s strange in a funny sort of way, how Stephen describes his initial reaction to the doll. He said it was cute and ugly at the same time—which sort of checks out given the item’s grisly.
I mean, the doll had supposedly witnessed mulitple untimely deaths. It even survived a house fire. So it only makes sense for this seemingly innocent toy to have a sinister air about it.
That said, Stephen like myself, maintained a certain level of skepticism. He was interested in the paranormal, sure, but when it came to haunted objects that whole notion felt a bit too far beyond the realm of normalcy for Stephen Lancaster to put his faith into.
He stood firm in this belief even as he and Christina walked out of the store with the woman behind the counter calling after them to be careful. But that was all before they got the doll home and began to live with it day in and day out.
Pause
Later that night, after this item was placed on a shelf alongside an assortment of other dolls and antiques, Stephen began to do some research on this so-called haunted artifact. And in doing so he discovered that the doll was once somewhat of a mascot for the Mattel Corporation and that it was originally called by the name Maddie.
Stephen and Christina, however, didn’t think this was a very fitting name for their new found companion. I mean there was nothing normal about it. It was neither doll nor man. Not really, that is. So they decided to call him Norman.
Like a dark cloud rolling in of the coast of the Carolina’s, a storm of otherworldly proportions began to brew over the Lancaster residence. At first drizzling subtly then pouring down on them all at once.
Pause
It began only a few nights later. Everyone in the house was asleep, Norman was still sitting in his place on the shelf alongside dozens of other dolls, when at approximately 4 o’clock on the morning a loud pounding echoed from the front door.
It was Stephen who climbed out of bed after he can Christina asked one another who would be knocking so incessantly on their door at such an early hour of the morning. Although this question went unanswered because by the time Stephen made it to the front door the knocking suddenly ended.
Looking out the window he found that no one was standing there on the porch—which was odd given how abruptly the knocking had gone quiet. I mean, whoever it is who had been pounding away on the door had an awful impatience about them. So Stephen found it hard to believe that they would have just given up and walked away—and even if they had they couldn’t have just disappeared that quickly.
So just to be sure he opened the door, peeking his head out into the night in an effort to catch a glimpse of this nighttime knocker. And yet all he found was an empty doorstep set against the backdrop of a quiet street.
Now I should probably mention that Stephen and Christina were relatively new to their neighborhood. In fact they had only recently moved into the house they had brought Norman the Doll home to. So after the incident with the door, well suffice it to say they were suitably creeped out.
Was it a teenaged neighbor playing a trick? Was it a home invader casing the house with intentions of returning later on? It could it be that ghost stories about Norman were true?
I can imagine these questions were running through Stephen’s head as he set up around the house. There was one in nearly every room—aside from the bathrooms and his stepdaughter’s room—as well as one on the front porch.
In other words there was really no where for a home intruder, or even a ghost to hide. If anyone was trying to break in—if anything strange was unfolding in the home—they would be able to catch it on tape. Or so they thought.
Pause
It was a couple days later when Christina’s 15 year old daughter, Hannah, came running down the stairs in search of her parents. She was dripping wet and frantic telling them someone was in the house with them.
She had been up in her bathroom taking a shower when she heard the sound of the doorknob twisting open. Only a second later, she saw a dark figure walk across her shower door.
Admittedly she thought it was Christina coming to get something, but when she poked her head out to ask her mother what she needed, Hannah found that no one was there. That’s when she bolted from the shower in hysterics. And honestly, rightfully so.
Pause
Now given the previous incident when the front door, Stephen decided he wasn’t going to take any chances with a potential home invader. So he went around checking the house from top to bottom only to find that the three of them were utterly alone.
There were no signs of a break in, and out of respect for Hannah’s privacy, there was no camera in the bathroom to document the incident either. It also couldn’t have been Christina or Stephen as the two of them had been downstairs in the living room the entire time. In other words, the family was at a loss and things only seemed to get stranger as the night went on.
Pause
Hannah had been asleep in her bedroom—her parents asleep in their’s—when she awoke to the feeling of her blanket being tugged from her body. It started out as just that, a light tugging. Then it evolved into a more intense yanking, until finally she looked down and saw something—an invisible force like hands pressing into the mattress.
Hannah screamed, Christina and Stephen come running. But without surveillance of the bedroom, none of them were really sure what to make of the incident. So in the end the whole thing was written off as a frightening but seemingly innocent dream.
Now at least in the beginning, Stephen didn’t make any connection between the strange goings on in the house and Norman the doll. And honestly, why would he? I mean, he was after all a skeptic when it came to haunted objects and his cameras hadn’t captured anything otherworldly on tape.
In other words, he had no reason to believe that these events were paranormal in nature and it wasn’t a natural reaction for him to blame them on a toy of all things. That is at least until his own grandchildren came asking questions.
Pause
A few days had passed since the incident in Hannah’s bedroom and Stephen’s grandkids were coming out to the house for a visit. When they arrived they saw Norman sitting up on the shelf and being that this was the newest doll in their collection they had taken a keen interest him.
That said, Stephen didn’t think much of it when his grandson asked if Norman could sit and watch TV with him and his sister. It was an innocent request to play with what at that time had always been a seemingly innocent doll. So taking the doll from the shelf, he handed it over to his grandson, then turned his back to the room and began to surf the web on his computer.
Only a few minutes had passed when Stephen heard his granddaughter screaming from behind him. And when he turned to ask what was wrong he, the girl told him that Norman had moved all on his own.
Like a flash of lightning, Stephen made the connection. The strange activity, now that you mention it, started right around the time that he and Christina had brought Norman the Doll into their home. And this time activity occurred in full view of his surveillance cameras.
So he turned back to his computer and opened the camera’s app, watching in horror as he uncovered what his granddaughter had seen with her own eyes. While it was sitting there between his grandkids on the bed, Norman the doll actually turned his head fixing his menacing gaze directly on Stephen Lancaster.
Now in spite of what you might expect, this discovery didn’t prompt Stephen and Christina from getting rid of the doll in it’s entirety. Nor did it stop them from spending their Saturdays at antique shops.
Today as a matter of fact Norman the doll remains in Stephen’s possession. And as it just so happens he documents the ongoing activity over on his YouTube Channel which I’ll have linked down in the show notes.
So if you’re feeling brave enough, you can go experience this haunting for yourself. That is unless you’re hoping to go out and find a doll the likes of Norman to add to your own collection.
Should that be the case, let this story can serve as a reminder and a warning that vintage clothes, second hand furniture, and unfinished quilt tops aren’t always the only items in stock at our favorite antique stores. Nor are the treasures we find ever truly what meets the eye.
Instead, if we look close enough, we might just discover the residue of something beyond ourselves—almost like a fine layer of dust that’s yet to be fanned away. Whether that be a rich history that’s been locked behind decades of lost time or the remaining energy of something cute yet ugly hidden away in a small wooden box.
