Investigation: Sam's Bar & Grill - Fords, NJ
Date of Investigation: 4/28/07
Case File#: SBGNJ - 04282007
The Scene
On Saturday, April 28th, the EPIC team visited Sam's Bar & Grill, in Fords, New Jersey. The bar is a 2-story building, with 2 apartments on the second floor, the main bar and kitchen area on the second floor, and a large basement. The bar was undergoing renovations at the time of our investigation.
Most of the activity that the previous owners, as well as past and current tenants, have reported is audible. They have reported hearing footsteps, people talking, arguing, and even fights. Reports of the sounds of bar stools sliding across the floor are also very common. The apparition of a man, walking through the bar from the side entrance, has also been reported numerous times. More recently, there have been reports of electrical circuit breakers tripping during the night when nobody is around, as well as electrical tools turning on by themselves. Some contract workers that were hire to help renovate the bar have refused to return to work because of such incidents.
The EPIC team set up its base of operations (or "safe room") in the building next door to the bar. This building, also owned by the owners of Sam's Bar, is completely detached from Sam's Bar & Grill, separated by a narrow alleyway. This eliminated a lot of potential contamination by anyone sitting in the safe room. Also, the owners of the bar were gracious enough to allow us full access to the buildings. So at any given time, the only people in the bar area were the 2 investigators from the EPIC Team. A total of four infrared cameras, connected to the multi-channel DVR system, were used for this investigation, with 2 positioned in the bar area, and 2 more in different sections of the basement. Two camcorders were also set up in the rear of the bar, or kitchen area. A total of 3 digital audio recorders were running for the duration of the investigation, one at each end of the bar, and one in the basement. A digital audio recorder, digital camera, and 35mm camera were also used by each team, as well as a Mini DV recorder to document the investigation.
The Investigation
For this investigation, two teams were established, Team 1 and Team 2. All video and audio equipment started recording at 9:00pm. Team 1 began the night at approximately 10:00pm by investigating the first floor of the bar area. At the same time, Team 2 stayed in the safe room to monitor the DVR system. Once Team 1 finished up at 10:45, Team 2 moved in to investigate at approximately 11:00pm. They investigated the first floor briefly, before moving to the larger basement room. At approximately 11:45pm, they wrapped up Stage 1 of the investigation.
Stage 2 of the investigation started at approximately 12:00am, but this time Team 1 investigated the basement, starting with the larger room and quickly moving into the smaller room. Once Team 1 completed their investigation of the basement area at approximately 1:00am, Team 2 moved in to continue investigating the first floor bar & kitchen areas. Stage 2 ended at approximately 2:30am. This ended the investigation, and at this point the Team packed up our equipment and headed home.
Each Team conducted EMF sweeps, took digital & 35mm photographs, and conducted EVP sessions in each room they investigated.
The Findings
During the investigation, the EPIC team had a number of personal experiences. Two Investigators both heard sounds of very faint "conversations" emanating from the rear of the bar (or kitchen area). Also heard was the sound of a woman crying or sobbing while we were investigating the smaller room of the basement (which also has a crawlspace, and this is where the sounds were heard to be coming from). Team two also both thought they had heard faint sounds of conversation, and also footsteps.
As far as photographic and video evidence, nothing definitive showed up on the Hi8 camcorders, visually or audibly. There were a few anomalies, that we are still investigating, but we are not yet prepared to consider them evidence. As usual, digital cameras were used, as well as standard 35mm film. We caught the usual dust orbs in a few pictures, and also saw them on video, but these were obviously dust, and nothing impressive. The IR cameras that were hooked up to the DVR also caught nothing unusual.
As far as the audio evidence is concerned, there were a few anomalies caught by the team. The first one, caught by the recorder in the front of the bar, picked up what sounds like 2 growls or moans. There were no team members on the first floor at this point, and the growls sound more animal than human. The second piece of audio evidence occurs while Team 2 is conducting EVP sessions. There is a faint whisper, which sounds like 3 words of syllables. It clearly sounds like someone whispering, but the words are hard to distinguish, although all team members agreed on the basic phonetic sounds of it. It should be noted that EPIC team members never whisper on investigations. The last piece of audio evidence was caught not only by the recorder in the basement, but also by the Mini DV that Artie was using. Artie asks a question, "Do you have any messages for us?" And what follows sounds like a small child whispering a word. We will not say what we think they are here. We will let you decide.
Examine the audio & video evidence
Conclusions
The EPIC team found some intriguing audio evidence. They are not "Class A" EVPs, but they are still among the strongest pieces of evidence we've caught yet. We have tried to find rational explanations for these voices, but could not do so. We are hoping to go back to Sam's Bar & Grill soon, to conduct a follow up investigation.
Click below to see our video summary of the investigation.
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