Ghost in the machine

COEUR d'ALENE - Things just don't add up with this Kmart cash register.

In the spirit of Halloween, The Coeur d'Alene Press asked North Idahoans to share their haunted tales.

Wednesday, the paper heard from one very interesting reader.

Tamara Dobbs, a cashier at the Coeur d'Alene Kmart, called to say that cash register No. 2 at the Coeur d'Alene Kmart has a poltergeist inhabiting it.

Dobbs said she's been working at the store for a year and discovered on her first day that "it didn't behave or act like all the registers."

She added Wednesday, "He monkeys with all the sales." She believes the poltergeist is a male.

"I had a customer tell me today that it's little men in there that like to play with you," Dobbs said.

When she asks for a supervisor to come to her rescue when it's acting up, the register never fails to begin working perfectly again.

"You'll be doing the buttons in the very same sequence" as a supervisor, she said. "I've even had customers say, 'She did exactly that.' Then we all laugh."

Her story sounded both a little scary - and plenty crazy- even for Halloween, so a reporter reached out to the store manager.

Lauren Larson, the store manager, described the approximately 15-year-old register as "an independent thinker" that regularly "loses its mind."

He said it often freezes up, dumps its memory and transactions vanish. But as soon as technicians are hired or brought in to repair it, the machine begins working perfectly. He said employees hate it.

"They just don't like to be assigned to work on it," Larson said.

"They want to smash it," Dobbs added.

Jenn Morin, who co-founded the Boise-based research team Paranormal Investigators of Idaho, said in an email Wednesday, "When someone experiences poltergeist activity, as investigators we look at the stress someone is under or their emotional state."

If a place has a poltergeist, she said, there is usually a variety of activity taking place. And plenty of noise.

"Objects may disappear completely or reappear in a new location," she said. "Sometimes you'll experience strange odors like cigarette smoke when no one in the location smokes."

Others hear footsteps, knocks or bangs, she said.

"On a rare occasion poltergeist activity can escalate to physical attacks," Morin said. "This includes being pushed, hit, or scratched."

Rachel Kulczar, founder of Post Falls-based North Idaho Paranormal Squad, said, "I would check into if they've had any employees who have passed away" during the relevant period.

She said ghosts and spirits will stay in a place where they feel comfortable.

"You see a lot of it with bars," she said.

In a situation like Kmart's rogue register, she would look for objects in the store moving, cold spots, and set up some cameras.

The Press would like to hear from more North Idaho readers about their paranormal experiences. No place is too small, and no ghost, demon or spirit is too scary.

If readers have a haunted place to share, please contact reporter David Cole at (208) 664-8176, extension 2015.

Coming tomorrow: The Mountain View mystery