Artie Matos, a 37-year-old Staten Island native, isn't merely a furniture salesman and interior decorator; he's also a paranormal investigator. Since what he calls his first encounter with a ghost, at age 11, Matos has studiously researched the existence of spirits and other unexplained phenomena. He previously led a group of fellow paranormal students but finally gave up the ghost, explaining that he "dismissed" them all because "a lot of them were loopy, and they didn't have enough drive and passion to do the work." Recently, Matos started anew, co-founding the Eastern Paranormal Investigation Center (EPIC), a four-person nonprofit ghost-hunting outfit that has investigated a few homes around the city, Brooklyn's Bridge Cafe (a former brothel and site of multiple murders), and Staten Island's Garibaldi-Meucci Museum. A typical investigation has the team spending an entire night recording any unusual sights and sounds, using electromagnetic and radiation meters, digital video cameras, and night-vision goggles. The best part: Matos offers all services free of charge to spooked clients.