Monday of spectres + Lunes de espectros [Eng+Spa]

It's Monday and an event at home reminded me of a ghost story. Part of it may be because my brother has become addicted to a YouTube channel that deals with mysteries and spooky things. Let's first comment on the story, and then I'll explain the event at home.

I never knew if the police case I'm about to share was a true story, or a fiction. But, I'm already used to the fact that reality can make any fiction we can imagine pale.

It all begins in an alley in the city of San Francisco, on the west coast of the United States.

A couple of young police patrolmen were doing their rounds on the route that had been assigned to them. The police saw a very agitated and upset young man in the alley. They got out of the patrol car and approached to find out what was happening.

At that time they were using mini-cameras attached to their chests, in the bulletproof vest, as a complement to the cameras in the police patrol car. The patrol car could not enter the alley, and there was no point in trying. The police spoke to the young man and noticed that in addition to being agitated, he was almost shouting and had blood on some parts of his body and face.

The police asked him if he was okay, he replied that he was not. They asked him if he needed help, and he shouted that he did. But when they told him that they would take him to a hospital, he shouted that he could not. He wanted to leave there, but he could not. And then he shouted, very upset, that those bastards had pushed him.

The police thought he had been assaulted, robbed, and that he had been pushed so that he hit his face against the garbage bins, which would explain the blood on his face. The problem was that everything was getting weird. The police had not approached out of caution, they were not sure of the condition that the young man was in, but now they were convinced that the best thing to do was to take him to a hospital. One of the patrolmen moved forward and extended his hand, but something unexpected happened.

The young man disappeared.

He simply vanished into thin air.

The policemen saw each other, ran to their patrol car, and left, they traveled as fast as they could along the route they had and arrived at their police precinct. They ran to where the personal cameras were handed out so that the technician could download the data and review it. But they discovered that the young man was not in the video image. They explained to the technician what they saw, fearing that they would be thought crazy. But the technician clarified that, although nothing could be seen at the time when they were talking to a wall in the alley, there was an inexplicable static on the video, as if something (which was not recorded on the camera or microphone) was responding to them.

Two older patrol officers who had patrolled the day before heard about the commotion, and said that they had picked up the body of a suicidal young man in that alley the day before. The younger patrol officers told the older ones the description of the young man they saw, and how that young man was screaming that he had been pushed. It was surprising that the description fit, but the patrol officers could not know that in advance. With this strange situation, they all went to find the detectives who were in charge. The case was being treated as suicide, but 'it' had said that he had been pushed, and it was scary to think about it.

Let's cut the story short. Despite the young patrolmen's distrust of their sanity, the backing of the older patrolmen and the camera technician led the detectives to seek out the young man's parents. The parents were attending the funeral and were heartbroken, but they were religious enough to regret the grave sin of suicide. And that increased the pain of their loss. <br<

When detectives told them there was a 'clue' that might indicate it was not a suicide, the parents were excited and cooperated. There was the rare luck that, the next day, a package delivery man from a private company heard from a neighbor on that street that an investigation had been opened into the young man's death, as it seemed that he was not a suicide. The delivery man had delivered packages on that street on the day of the young man's death and remembered that he had been on the sidewalk across the street when he heard a loud noise, but he did not give it much importance and did not want to find out what was happening. He searched his body camera record and found the exact moment when he was delivering a package and had turned to look at the sidewalk across the street.

It was fortunate that the package delivery company had also implemented body cameras as a measure to verify the delivery of the packages. The point is that, when reviewing the recording, the delivery man saw two young people running out of the building across the street. He took that recording to the police. The detectives searched with that image, and discovered that they were two young friends of the deceased, who frequently visited his apartment.

It was all circumstantial, but they managed to get a judge to give them an order to investigate. They searched for the young men, and they denied everything, their lawyers also pointed out the weaknesses of the case, and they learned (mockingly) that there was even a 'clue' given by a ghost. Even so, they managed to take the young men to the alley, and the four patrolmen went as well. And upon arriving, the two young suspects went into crisis and began to confess loudly, their lawyers intervened and assured that their clients were not well, and it was evident that they were having a mental episode.

But, between the circumstantial evidence and the confessions, which the young men did not dare to deny after leaving the alley, the case was properly closed.

As I said at the beginning, I do not know if it is a real case or if what I read was a well-told fiction. Now the comment on what happened at home (and which led me to remember this police case), is that today there was again the case of seeing people at home who ‘in reality’ were not there. In other words, you see the silhouette of a person out of the corner of your eye, you look away and when you turn around, there is no one there… In fact, there was no one from the beginning, but you ‘saw’ (even heard) a person there.

As you can see, it is a rare case, but I have seen it happen. When you live a few decades, you may see interesting things if you pay attention.

Es lunes y un evento en casa me hizo recordar una historia de fantasmas. En parte puede ser porque mi hermano se ha aficionado a un canal de YouTube que trata sobre misterios y cosas de espantos. Pasemos primero a comentar sobre la historia, y luego explico el evento en casa.

Nunca supe si el caso policiaco que estoy a punto de compartir se trataba de una historia real, o de una ficción. Pero, ya estoy acostumbrado a que la realidad puede dejar pálida a cualquier ficción que podamos imaginar.

Todo comienza en un callejón en la ciudad de San Francisco, en la costa oeste de Estados Unidos.

Una pareja de jóvenes patrulleros de la policía estaba haciendo su ronda en la ruta que les habían asignado. Los policías vieron a un joven muy agitado y alterado en el callejón. Se bajaron de la patrulla y se acercaron a averiguar qué sucedía.

En esa época estaban usando mini-cámaras adosadas al pecho, en el chaleco antibalas, como complemento de las cámaras de la patrulla de policía. La patrulla no podía entrar al callejón, y no tenía sentido intentarlo. Los policías hablaron con el joven y notaron que además de estar agitado, hablaba casi a gritos y tenía sangre por algunas partes del cuerpo y su cara.

Los policías le preguntaban si estaba bien, él respondía que no lo estaba. Le preguntaron si necesitaba ayuda, y el gritó que sí. Pero cuando le dijeron que lo llevarían a un hospital, él les gritó que no podía. Quería irse de allí, pero no podía. Y gritaba luego, muy molesto que esos desgraciados lo habían empujado.

Los policías pensaron que lo habían asaltado, robado, y que lo habrían empujado para que golpeara su cara contra los depósitos de basura, eso explicaría la sangre en su cara. El problema es que todo se estaba poniendo raro. Los policías no se habían acercado por precaución, no estaban seguros de la condición en que estaba ese joven, pero ahora estaban convencidos de que lo mejor era llevarlo a un hospital. Uno de los patrulleros avanzó y tendió su mano, pero pasó algo inesperado.

El joven desapareció.

Simplemente se esfumó en el aire.

Los policías se vieron las caras, corrieron a su patrulla, y se marcharon, recorrieron a la mayor velocidad que pudieron la ruta que tenían y llegaron a su precinto de policía. Corrieron a donde se entregaban las cámaras personales para que el técnico descargara los datos y poder revisarlos. Pero descubrieron que el joven no estaba en la imagen del vídeo. Le explicaron al técnico lo que vieron, temiendo que les creyeran locos. Pero el técnico aclaró que, si bien no se veía nada en los momentos en que ellos le hablaban a una pared en el callejón, sucedía que había una inexplicable estática en el vídeo, como si algo (que no se registraba en la cámara ni el micrófono) les estuviera respondiendo.

Dos policías patrulleros mayores que habían patrullado el día anterior se enteraron por el alboroto, Y comentaron que en ese callejón habían recogido el cuerpo de un joven suicida el día anterior. Los patrulleros jóvenes les dijeron a los mayores la descripción del joven que vieron, y como ese joven gritaba que lo empujaron. Sorprendía que la descripción encajaba, pero los patrulleros no podían saberlo de antemano. Con esta situación tan rara, todos ellos fueron a buscar a los detectives que estaban a cargo. El caso se tomaba como suicidio, pero ‘eso’ había dicho que lo habían empujado, y daba miedo pensarlo.

Acortemos el cuento. A pesar de la desconfianza en la cordura de los jóvenes patrulleros, el respaldo de los patrulleros viejos y del técnico de las cámaras, llevó a que los detectives buscaran a los padres del joven. Los padres estaban atendiendo el funeral y estaban desconsolados, eran lo suficientemente religiosos como para lamentar el grave pecado que era el suicidio. Y eso aumentaba el dolor de su perdida. <br<

Cuando los detectives les plantearon que había una ‘pista’ que podría indicar que no era un suicidio, los padres se emocionaron y colaboraron. Hubo la rara suerte de que, al día siguiente, un repartidor de paquetería de una empresa privada, escuchó de un vecino de esa calle que se había abierto una investigación por la muerte del joven, pues pareciera que no era un suicida. El repartidor había entregado paquetes en esa calle el día de la muerte del joven y recordaba que había estado en la acera de enfrente cuando escuchó un grito, pero no le dio mayor importancia y no quiso averiguar que sucedía. Buscó en su registro de cámara corporal y encontró el momento exacto en que entregaba un paquete y se había volteado a ver la acera de enfrente.

Era una suerte que la empresa de paquetería hubiera implementado también las cámaras corporales como una medida de comprobación de la entre de los paquetes. El punto es que, al revisar la grabación, el repartidor vio a dos jóvenes saliendo corriendo del edificio de enfrente. Llevó esa grabación a la policía. Los detectives buscaron con esa imagen, y descubrieron que eran dos jóvenes amigos del difunto, que visitaban con frecuencia su apartamento.

Todo era circunstancial, pero lograron que un juez les diera una orden para investigar. Buscaron a los jóvenes, y ellos negaron todo, sus abogados también señalaron las debilidades del cao, y se enteraron (con burla) de que había incluso una ‘pista’ dada por un fantasma. Aún así, lograron llevar a los jóvenes al callejón, y fueron también los cuatro patrulleros. Y al llegar, los dos jóvenes sospechosos entraron en crisis y comenzaron a confesar a gritos, sus abogados intervinieron y aseguraron que sus clientes no estaban bien, y era evidente que estaban teniendo un episodio mental.

Pero, entre las evidencias circunstanciales y las confesiones, que los jóvenes no se atrevieron a negar luego de salir del callejón, el caso se cerro adecuadamente.

Como dije en el inicio, no sé si es un caso real o si lo que leí era una ficción bien narrada. Ahora el comentario de lo que pasó en casa (y que me llevó a recordar este caso policial), es que hoy volvió a darse el caso de ver en casa a gente que ‘en realidad’ no estaba allí. Vamos, que se trata de que vez por la periferia de tu ojo la silueta de una persona, miras a otro lado y cuando volteas, ya no hay nadie… De hecho, no había nadie desde un principio, pero tú ‘viste’ (incluso escuchaste) a una persona en ese sitio.

Como verás, es un caso raro, pero lo he visto pasar. Cuando vives algunas décadas, puede que veas cosas interesantes si prestas atención.