Rogers Christmas Village- Main House

The Location: Roger's Christmas House Village and Gift Shop.

Located in Brooksville, Fl, Roger's is a commercial retail property consisting of 5 unique buildings on the premises. The location specializes in the sale of Christmas decorations, household decorations and gifts.

The main house was once the residence of Mrs. Margaret "Weenie" Rogers. She turned her home into what is now one of the most well known year round Christmas Stores in all of Tampa Bay.

The team had to be especially careful during this investigation. Not only are there some very expensive items on display but, many of the surfaces inside the store are reflective. Extra caution was used in this case both during the actual investigation and evidence review.

Investigation:
Roger’s Christmas House Village & Gift Shop- Main House

Investigators
Present: Robyn, Melissa, John, Kim, Jan, Al, Wanda, Alice and Don

Reported activity at
Roger’s Christmas House:

-Witnesses reported hearing toilets flushing before the bathrooms
were remodeled.

-Toilet seats could be heard slamming down on their own.

-Items would regularly be found on the floor when employees
entered the store in the mornings. They say that the store was clean and
nothing out of order the night before when the store was closed.

-A helium balloon is reported to have activated the motion
sensor sounding the alarm at the front door one night at around 2am. When
George Rodriguez, the store’s manager came to the Christmas House’s main
building to investigate he was hit in the face with the balloon as soon as he
opened the door.

Note: The
balloon’s original location was in a bundle of other balloons at the very far
side of the building approximately 100ft from where it was found by Mr.
Rodriguez. The balloon’s journey was quite impressive; having gone down a small
flight of stairs, under approximately 4 doorframes, down 2 hallways and through
3 rooms before stopping at the main entrance of the building located in the
middle of the house. We noted a crevice along the ceiling of the longest
hallway the balloon traveled down. Upon investigating this balloon’s fantastic
journey through house, it was noted that there were many obstacles in which
this balloon should have gotten itself stuck. We found it quite incredible that
something as light as a helium balloon could avoid the air current of AC vents
all along the path it took as well going down
a short flight of stairs.

-There is also a rumor that has circulated about an apparent
murder that took place at the house back in the 1930’s. The story goes that a
married couple living in the house engaged in a domestic dispute. During the
dispute, the woman allegedly stabbed her husband to death. When the police
arrived on the scene, one of the officers was also stabbed by the wife. She was in
turn shot by police.

Our team tried to verify this story through research both
online and at the local public library. Nothing could be found to substantiate
those claims. Our Research Coordinator even made phone calls to the local police
and sheriff departments inquiring into the history of officers killed in the
line of duty. Neither department had any listings of officers or deputies being
killed in such a manner.

Yet, eyewitnesses have claimed to see the apparition of a
woman wielding a shotgun on the premises. While these witnesses claim to have
seen the woman holding a shotgun, the story says that the woman used a knife. Unfortunately,
our team was unable to turn up evidence to prove this event actually happened.

The Investigation:

The team arrived at the Christmas House at 7pm on February 9^th,
2008. It was a clear night, 72 degrees with relative humidity. The
investigation lasts approximately 4 hours.

We set up command central in the stores main cashier section
of the building.

Melissa took Mr. Rodriguez around the building while conducting the
pre investigation walkthrough and interview. During the interview Mr. Rodriguez
and Melissa are in the Dining Room part of the house. He is explaining to her
what things have transpired in that room. He tells her how things would be found
on the floor every morning when the employees would come in yet, the floors
were clear the nights before.

Just moments after Mr. Rodriguez finishes telling Melissa
about these incidents, a candle suddenly falls from a crystal candle holder a
few feet away. We have no way of knowing if the candle had been secure within
the holder prior to it falling but, the incident was duly noted. Even Mr.
Rodriguez commented on how strange the incident was.

Personal Experiences:

*During set up of our IR cameras, John, Robyn and Melissa
were in what is known as the Florida Room. Just as we were about turn and leave the room, John felt a poking
sensation on the upper part of his left shoulder. He turned to question Robyn
as to whether she had tapped him wanting something from him. She had not
touched him. No one in the room had poked John, yet he was sure of what he
felt. And there was nothing in the vicinity that he could have leaned or brushed up against.

*Kim, Melissa and Robyn were sitting in what used to be Mrs.
Roger’s bedroom, before the house became a commercial property, conducting an
EVP session. This room is located just off the Florida room.

Both Melissa and Kim felt chills while in the room. Kim had
the IR thermometer and scanned the room for temperature changes. At one point a
cold spot was detected. The temperature in that area dropped approximately 7.5
degrees and then returned to normal within a matter of minutes.

*At another time during the night John and Wanda report
seeing a shadow go across the porch of the Magnolia House which is located just
behind the main house. We had an IR camera on the back porch of the main
building pointing out into the yard between the two buildings. The front porch
of the Magnolia house was clearly visible within the view of the camera.
Though, when reviewing the video from the DVR, no shadow was seen.

*While going through the house to set up an EVP session in
another location, Kim saw what she described as a dark shadow moving down the
hallway through the house toward the kitchen. When the shadow was followed by
Kim, Melissa and Robyn, they found nothing but did notice that the light in the
basement was on. When radioing to command central to find out if anyone had
left the lights on down there, all team members that had been in that area
previously noted that the lights were, in fact, turned off.

*Jan had been sitting in the room where the main entrance to
the Christmas House is located. It’s a beautifully decorated room with ornate
Christmas trees and various items for purchase on the shelves surrounding the
room. She had been seated in a chair holding an EMF detector and trying to get
a feel for the room. The EMF detector began spiking quite frequently. Although,
when team members arrived and began taking pictures nothing showed up in any of
the photographs except for a small orb on Jan’s thigh.

*While walking through the house and taking pictures, Kim
and Melissa went back into Mrs. Roger’s bedroom to get a few more shots. While
in there they noticed a curtain that was covering a small closet on the side of
the room had begun to move slightly. Melissa checked for vents on the walls or
the ceiling that would cause the air from the AC to move the fabric. There were
no vents or air ducts of any kind located in that vicinity. The two of them
felt for drafts or any air flow, there was none to be felt. Yet, this curtain
continued to move for a few minutes before it abruptly ceased with no
explanation.

*Just a few minutes after Melissa and Kim noticed the
curtain moving in the bedroom, they were joined by Robyn whom then began taking
pictures in the dining room just off the bedroom. Robyn had a digital voice
recorder lying on the table in the dining room and the three of them were
talking and taking pictures. Suddenly Robyn’s walkie talkie, which was secured
to her hip with the clip attachment, began to call. It was as th9ough the call
button had been pressed yet, Robyn’s hands were up near her camera and she had
not bumped into anything that might have caused the call button to sound.

Immediately after the call alarm stopped sounding, the
walkie talkie mysteriously began to scan through channels. All of the team’s
walkie talkies are set to a particular channel and no one ever changes them
unless the entire team has interference on that channel.

The scanning continued for several seconds before stopping
at a man’s voice. No one was able to make out what was being said but, it was
determined he was communicating on a CB radio.

Robyn checked the walkie talkie during the time it had been
scanning and noted the battery life, which just before the incident was full,
was now down to less than ¼ full.

Once the scanning and calling stopped, the battery power was
back up to full.

This incident was captured on both the IR camera set up in the
dining room and the voice recorder left lying on the table.

Evidence:

EVPs:

The team
did manage to get 6 different EVPs during the investigation. A female voice can
be heard in every audio clip. Some of the clips are clearer than others but,
there’s no mistaking the feminine voice. These can be heard on our EVP page
under Roger’s Christmas House Investigation.

Video:

There were
a few video anomalies that were difficult to explain. Some of these anomalies
could be attributed to dust particles reflecting the light from the IR LEDS as
they floated past the camera. Yet, there are some just do not appear to be dust
or bugs. While we have not been able to explain nature of these anomalies, the
video evidence is being labeled as undetermined.

Photographic:

All
members of the LSPIR team took photographs with digital cameras during the
investigation.

The most intriguing one was taken by Jan outside. She shot
Al sitting in a chair on the porch of one of the other buildings while
conducting an EVP session. In the back and to the right, you can see a bench on
another section of porch. There is a railing that goes up to the back of the
bench. Both the railing and the bench are made of wrought iron.

In this photograph there appears to be a figure seated on
the bench looking back at Al and Jan. Though during this time, Al and Jan were
the only two team members outside. Everyone else was accounted for. And upon
closer inspection of the figure in the picture, the person does not appear to
be solid.

Other photos taken that night do show some interesting orbs.
While the subject of orbs is up for debate within the paranormal community,
LSPIR does still take orbs into consideration when there has been other
activity noted during the investigation.

Conclusion:

From
personal experiences to EVPs and photographic anomalies captured during our
investigation at Roger’s Christmas House, this proved to be a very exciting
case indeed. Mr. Rodriguez and the employees present during the investigation
that evening were wonderful. They were friendly, helpful and very interested in
what was happening in their business.

After reviewing all of our evidence , gathering and
compiling personal experiences and discussing it among the team, we have
concluded that the main house in Roger’s Christmas Village
does have paranormal activity.

At this point, it would be a stretch to say the location is
outright haunted but, perhaps in the future, we will be able to find more
information to change our minds.

This photograph shows the bench in the photo in question.

Here is the original photograph with the anomaly. Look to the far right side in the back at the bench.

Now, here is that area blown up...

And here, our own photographer filttered the image so that a figure can be clearly seen on the bench.

The links to the video evidence are below:

RCH Video 1-Interview with George Rodriguez

RCH Video 2-Candle Falls/Interview

RCH Video 3

RCH Video 4

RCH Video 5

RCH Video 6

RCH Video 7-Walkie Talkie Incident