By Police1 Staff
DULUTH, Minn. — Conservation officers were searching for deer poachers in a cemetery, but instead found hunters with more of a paranormal preference.
Twin Cities Pioneer Press reported that conservation officers Andy Schmidt and Kipp Duncan responded to a call about people “shining” deer, or illegally using a spotlight to locate deer at night.
The two officers were staked out in a small cemetery close to midnight when they saw a light.
“We were in the truck waiting for something to happen when this car pulled into the cemetery,” Schmidt said. “We could see they were using some sort of light. But it wasn’t really a beam of light. It was flashing on and off like a strobe.”
Schmidt and Duncan weren’t sure if the suspects were doing anything illegal, but they decided to find out what was going on.
“So we pulled out to talk to them and they took off. We had to chase after them and hit them with the (flashing) lights out on the road,” Schmidt said.
The suspects turned out to be two women who did not appear to be looking for deer.
“When we asked them what they were doing with the lights they wouldn’t tell us. They said we’d make fun of them,” Schmidt said.
The women eventually told them they were hunting for ghosts in the cemetery.
“She explained they were using their phone camera flash to spot ghosts. They said that you can’t see ghosts with a normal light, that you have to use a flash,” Schmidt said. “I didn’t realize ghosts only show up with flash.”
The women said they were using an app called Ghost Radar, which advertises as “the original application designed to detect paranormal activity.”
“They said it would allow you to see where the ghosts were that you couldn’t see,” Schmidt said.
“We told them to have fun,” Duncan said. “And then we laughed. We see all of it out there. But this is the first time we’ve stopped ghostbusters, or whatever you call them.”