Strange occurrences in Tampa Bay Store.

Creepy occurrences in antiques stores have owners wondering about ghosts.


Laura Cheek opened the door to the shop, then immediately froze.

Before locking up the night before, the antiques store co-owner had walked the entire
building, cleaning and shutting off lights.

But on this morning, a half-dozen toys stood in a circle in the shop's foyer. An open book
lay nearby.

"That's strange," Cheek mumbled to no one or nothing in particular. She hopes.

Cheek didn't know it at the time, but for months, vendors and customers had been quietly whispering about strange happenings at the two Antiques & Uniques stores Cheek and her business partner, Kym Eggers, run in Ozona and Palm Harbor.

Unplugged lamps flickered on. Spooked pets refused to enter. There was unexplained foot
shuffling and crashing noises. One customer who was alone when he felt a gentle tap on
his shoulder quietly inquired if someone had died there.

Store workers had chalked it up to customers moving merchandise. Or pranks by
co-workers. Or overactive imaginations. Pure coincidence.

But then customers who had patronized or worked in the two buildings when they were
restaurants started sharing tales of ghostly presences who cleaned and neatly stacked china
on the floor overnight. Ripped a pot from a wall hook, breaking a woman's collarbone.
Sent salt and pepper shakers whizzing across tables. And caused mail to seemingly grow
legs and walk itself inside from the mailbox.

The rumors were an open secret until last month, when customer Cindy Foster approached
the staff.

"Excuse me. This may sound weird, but has anyone ever reported any paranormal
experiences here?" she asked.

It turns out that Foster, an investigator and location scout with the Southern States
Paranormal Research Group, had felt a familiar tingle in her arms when she entered both
Antiques & Uniques stores. To her, the tingle was an indication of paranormal activity.
Cheek and Eggers have accepted the Lakeland-based group's offer to conduct an
investigation in the stores.

"With old buildings and antiques, you're going to get some activity because it has so much
history," said Foster, 47, of Tarpon Springs. "When I come in here, I just feel a lot of good
energy."

To prepare for the investigation, Antiques & Uniques is asking the public to help provide
background information about the buildings.

Workers believe the Palm Harbor store, at 530 Alt. U.S. 19, was built in the early 1930s as
a private residence before it was transformed into a tea house, then a salon. Cheek and
Eggers affectionately call the ghost there "Bertie" or "Birdie," in honor of a woman they
were told was the original owner.

As for the Ozona store at 303 Orange St. N, some think the ghostly presence that seems to
occupy the older portion of that building is a fisherman who ran Hart Seafood out of what
may have doubled as his home. Over the years, workers believe, the building has housed a
bar, a day spa and an Internet eyeglass shipping company.

Leslie Alfred, who operated the Red Roe Restaurant on the Ozona site in the 1990s, said a
previous owner called in a Catholic priest to bless the building.

According to Alfred, Red Roe customers more than once told the only waitress on duty that
someone else had already taken their order. At one point, a team of investigators said they
detected paranormal activity on the property, Alfred said.

A common myth, said Foster of the Southern States Paranormal group, is that investigations
stir up more activity.

"It's a very delicate subject. So many people have paranormal experiences but don't talk
about it," Foster said, adding that Pinellas County's history of Indian burial mounds and
repurposed buildings makes it a hotbed for residual energy. "It takes someone of the same
interests to bring it out."

Store officials know some people may think their story is crazy. And they might agree,
said vendor Carla Gillis, except for things that happen overnight or when employees are
alone — as in Cheek's mysterious toy incident (which, by the way, happened in the same
building where a vendor says a Peter Rabbit children's book appears to move itself around
the room).

They say that if there are ghosts, the spirits have been nothing but nice to them.

But Ozona resident Kim Silver's service animal seems to think otherwise. A docile mutt
named Rainbow, it strained on its leash trying to flee whatever it glimpsed in a dark corner
of the store several months ago.

Last week, Rainbow licked two admirers outside the Ozona store, then calmly let Silver
lead it to the store. But when the door opened, the dog did an immediate about-face.

"She just acts crazy if I try to pull her in. I've never seen her act like that, ever. She's a
service animal, so she goes in everywhere," Silver said, then added: "I don't understand
it myself. I guess we'll find out."



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