As many of you may recall, some years back an innocuous but mystifying video surfaced and made its way across the nation and onto the Internet. The video was taken ostensibly from a security camera at the Puckett's Auto and Body Shop in 2002. What it seems to show is a somewhat indistinct humanoid figure hovering above the vehicles and flitting about the shop's lot in an erratic manner.
Later, a story arose around the figure: it was a woman who was killed during an accident involving one of the cars now stored onsite. But not all were convinced by these ghostly rumors.
The folks at Rocky Mountain Paranormal research society believe they have an explanation as to how this "ghost" was produced - and it involves a bit of old time stage magic...
5 comments:
Hello,
I am Baxter from Rocky Mountain Paranormal Research Society. Years ago, we thought that the Puckett's ghost could have easily been produced with the Pepper's ghost effect but quickly discovered that it wasn't required. Because of the nature of the camera used, it would only take a small action figure dangled fairly close to the lens. Not very complicated and far more likely.
Thanks for the update! That gives us method, and motive is easy enough to presume, given the ubiquity of the video across cyberspace. The only question left would be who perpetrated the hoax.
This is one I'd love to see Fact or Faked show debunk. I saw the example on tv of the figure on a string, but it really wasn't quite right, but close enough that I believe it was a hoax. The movement of the figure is just too chaotic and undirected so I'll say hoax. Thanks for covering this one. I just love these viral videos that make the rounds.
I don't think it can be produced exactly without knowing the precise set up used by the hoaxers, but we can approximate it closely enough to surmise that a hoax definitely occurred. I think part of it its "erratic" movement has to do with the frame speed on the video recorder. It seems slow, almost less like full motion and more a series of stills.
This is Bryan with Rocky Mountain Paranormal. I was the one on the National Geographic Channel recreating the video.
The reason that the original looks like a "series of stills" and the movement of the figure in the recreation was "chaotic and undirected" is because the camera that captured the original was a security camera that captured one frame every 2 seconds.
So that means that the recreations that have been done are accurate just not using the same type of camera.
The Fact or Faked team might be a good one to do it if they really did research, but....
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