Haunted Dolls Scare People in Texas and Thailand, While a Haunted Tree Shakes Up Ghana

Other than clowns, there are few things that creep people out more than dolls – especially creepy dolls. Talk show host John Oliver devoted a segment of a recent show to the creepy dolls that are washing up on South Texas beaches. As with most creepy dolls, Oliver suspects these could be haunted or cursed and offered a reward to collect and destroy them. In the same state of Texas, a famous haunted hotel has a room filled with creepy dolls, and a visitor this week recorded one appearing to move on its own. If you live in Texas and want to escape haunted dolls, don’t move to Thailand, where a couple of thieves were so creeped out by the creepy doll they stole, they broke in again just to return it. And if you’re feeling smug because you live in a place with no creepy dolls, just trees, be forewarned – those can be creepy and haunted too, as some folks in Ghana found out when a gnarly looking tree that was completely uprooted by a storm mysteriously returned to its upright position. Is anyplace safe from creepy things these days?

“Room 14 is one of our themed rooms. We have introduced the room with a variety of our antique dolls, so if you're afraid of dolls you might choose another room.”

The Jefferson Hotel at 124 W. Austin Street in Jefferson, Texas, was built in 1851, so it has had plenty of time to accumulated ghosts and ghost stories. Guests can record them in a registration book behind the front desk, like one family staying in Room 5 saw a man in a long coat and high boots would not go away, or the elderly man who was walking the halls at 1 a.m. and met a petite blonde woman floating down the stairs smiling at him, only to disappear before he could get her number. Since TikTok has taken over, the latest encounter was reported there by a man (Kyle, no last name given) who on June 26 was staying in Room 14 with the dolls and decided to record them while he was gone. When he returned and view the video, he noticed that a doll that was standing at the corner of the bed and the wall appeared to have moved. First the doll appears to be gone, then what looks like the top of the doll's head comes into the scene from behind the pillow. The head moves some more, then stops. Finally, it seems to shake and disappears, most likely falling to the floor. The hotel’s owner claims this was a real haunted experience typical of the doll room, and he trusts ‘Kyle’ because he’s a regular guest at the hotel. Take a look again. Do you think it’s a haunted doll or was the scene staged?

“In May, the driver of the car died in a road accident. The car was destroyed and taken to a scrapyard in the Mueang district. The car owner’s giant Hello Kitty doll was left in the back seat, completely unscathed by the car crash. A friend of the deceased said they had bought the doll for the driver as a birthday present.”

The Thaiger sets the stage for the second creepy and possibly haunted doll story. On July 12, the CCTV camera at the junkyard impounding the wreck recorded a couple as they pulled in,  got out of their car, opened the door of the wreck, removed the large stuffed pink and white Hello Kitty, got back in their vehicle and pulled away. (Photos can be seen here at Khaosod.co.th, a Thai language site which says it was two men, not a man and a woman). At 2 a.m. on July 13, the two men returned and this scene was recorded.

“It turns out that the two men walked back to the front of the garage, threw the doll in front of the garage and walked away with a blank look. causing a lot of confusion for the garage owner Why did you steal it? Then why bring it back? What exactly happened?”

According to The Taiger, the video allowed the thieves to be identified and questioned.

“The woman said that the night she stole the Hello Kitty doll, she saw a shadow of a little girl in her bedroom. Then, she felt like something was choking her. The couple took the teddy back to the scrapyard straight away.”

Wouldn’t you?

OK, enough with the creepy haunted dolls. Let’s move on to the creepy haunted trees.

“Residents of Dambai Health Center, a farming community, in the Krachi East Municipality of the Oti Region are in shock as a teak tree which was uprooted in a rainstorm appears upright to its former position without branches.”

Dambai is a city in the central east side of Ghana on the Oti River. According to various media sites which picked up the story from the Ghana News Agency (GNA), a Madam Mary Boama first noticed the teak tree uprooted about a week before she contacted GNA on July 11. The tree was a c big concern to Madam Boama because the tree was close to her house. While there are no photos of the fallen teak tree, she claimed it was lying on the ground with some of the roots exposed while the rest were still in the earth. Apparently the teak tree quickly dried out and lost its leaves, so Madam Boama decided to cut off some branches for firewood. That’s when things got weird.

“Mr Abraham Sapaku, a resident nearby explained that he was home when he heard a loud vibration sound after which the tree reverted to its former position, standing upright.”

A vibration sound? Could it have been a truck … or was it something out of the ordinary? Madam Boama feared the alter, especially since she had cut off some of the branches. Was the tree sending a message? She was obviously creeped out by the sight.

“(The teak tree stood upright) staring at everybody. This is a clear case of wonders shall never end situation.”

Just to be on the safe side, Madam Boama says she’ll be calling in a spiritualist to check out the tree and herself, since she was “still in shock.” This might be dismissed as a trait of a culture or religion that accepts ghosts and spirits as causes of physical events … except the GNA reported “that a similar incident happened recently in a traditional area within the region.”  One more thing to ponder … in Somerset County, New Jersey, stands the Devil's Tree, a solitary oak tree with some dead limbs that local legend says is cursed and those who damage or disrespect the tree (often it gets urinated on) will come to some sort of harm, often in the form of a car accident as they leave the area.

Two haunted dolls and a haunted tree all in the same week. Coincidence … or is the other world trying to tell us something?