Cd'A Press ghost hunter comes up empty - for now
Photographer and ghost chaser Loren Benoit in the Press newsroom. Like the ghost in the cemetery, piles of photo equipment, notebooks and McDonald’s wrappers mysteriously vanished for this photo. AUTUMN FAHL/Press
By AUTUMN FAHL
Staff Writer
Loren Benoit woke at 12:01 a.m. to the voice of an excited police dispatcher.
Loren, staff photographer for The Press, keeps an old police scanner on his bedside table. Most nights it’s quiet, interrupted only by the occasional back-and-forth between patrol officers and dispatch when a driver is pulled over with a tail light that doesn’t work or for rolling through a stop sign without coming to a complete halt.
But last night? The thing jumped to life, albeit with more static than usual.
“Attention all downtown units,” the female dispatcher said, a hint of terror in her tone. “Be advised of a reported ghost in Forest Cemetery.”
She paused, then added: “I’m dead serious.”
Loren leaped out of bed, tossed on jeans, a thick sweatshirt and sneakers, grabbed the scanner and camera bag and bolted for his car, parked outside his eastside apartment. Forest Cemetery was no more than 5 minutes away. In the middle of the night with zero traffic, maybe less.
He knew he shouldn’t, but Loren sped. He drove 28 mph in a 25 mph zone, glancing anxiously left and right as his headlights pierced the black gloom.
A ghost sighting! His imagination soared. What if I’m able to actually photograph a real ghost? Maybe even get a picture with a police officer or two in it, chasing the specter? The Coeur d’Alene Press is a good place to work, but an opportunity like this could open the doors to The New York Times, Washington Post or National Enquirer!
Hurtling north on Government Way past the County Courthouse, Loren realized that his scanner had been silent since he’d heard the initial report. Strange; usually the calm, professional-sounding voices exchanged information. In urgent cases, more police help was often requested. But now? Silence, even as the blinking green light on top of the scanner assured Loren that it was working just fine.
Scanner chatter wasn’t the only thing missing. As Loren slowed down with the cemetery on his left, he realized there were no flashing racks on police rigs. In fact, there were no police cars at all.
Loren pulled over. The Forest Cemetery gates were locked, as they are every night from 10 until dawn. Wide-eyed, Loren scanned the graveyard, searching for movement. Nothing.
Peering next through his 300mm f/2.8 Canon lens, Loren again scoured the cemetery for any sign of life — or in this instance, the opposite.
No ghost. No police. No explanation.
And no chance of sleep the rest of this foreboding night.
TO BE CONTINUED