My Uncle, The Jesey Devil

IF YOU WERE TO CRACK a phone book in South Jersey and drag your finger along the pages in the "L" section, you'd find rows and rows of people named Leeds. And if you were to ring them up — one by one — and ask, sheepishly, if the person on the other end of the line knew anything about the Jersey Devil, you might hear claims of direct lineage, the kind of boasts made by folks with ancestors off the Mayflower or descended from European royalty.

Bill Sprouse, 39, has made that phone call and also has his own claim to stake. When he was 10 years old, the South Jersey native and author of "The Domestic Life of the Jersey Devil," was visiting his grandmother — his "BeBop," Helen Leeds — at her tiny house in Absecon when she told him, quite plainly, that he was related to the Jersey Devil.

The news did not immediately impress him.

"I kind of forgot about it for 10 or 15 years," he tells me as we drive down suburban backroads at the edge of the Pine Barrens, the Jersey Devil's backyard. "I think it's one of the weirdest things about growing up in this part of New Jersey. Somebody can tell you you're related to a monster and it won't seem like a very big deal."

Eventually, the story became Sprouse's back-pocket anecdote, the thing he'd pull out at parties and job interviews. "It wasn't until I left New Jersey — until I went to college and started mentioning that fact outside the local context," he says, "that I realized how crazy it is."

But there was something to it, this story. BeBop had some evidence.

Read Full Story: NJ.com

Hospital worker takes Snapchat picture of 'dead girl' outside children's ward

Andrew Milburn was texting his girlfriend at Leeds General Infirmary on Friday night just before starting his night shift.

To prove he was at work, he sent her a Snapchat image of a corridor near the hospital's children's ward.

But the 21-year-old says he had no idea the picture that actually appeared on his phone showed a terrifying ghostly looking figure.

FREAKY: There was nothing in the corridor when Andrew took this snap – it only appeared in the photo.

Andrew said: "My girlfriend asked me to prove I was at work so I sent her a picture as I walked to my office.

"Unbeknown at the time it appears that I captured a ghost figure in the corridors.

"I have since put this picture on Facebook, it has received thousands of likes and comments and has been shared as far as America.

"It has also been shared on to paranormal investigator groups, many of which believe the picture is real."

To make matters even more spooky – Andrew said a number of his colleagues at the hospital have heard footsteps at the exact spot where the ghost can be seen.

He said: "There have been a few odd things.

Read Full Story: Daily Star UK 

Ghost photo-bombed a family photo at creepy castle

Spooked dad Nurul Islam, 37, of Chapel Allerton, was on a day out with his family at the popular park when he snapped this photo of his niece and nephew, Mayrian Islam, 11, and Ryhan Kaliq, seven, in front of the castle ruins.

But when he got home and looked again at the picture, he spotted what seems to be a ghostly apparition hovering in the background. Nurul said: “We were taking lots of pictures. Because people were standing on the steps and walking about, we waited for them to move on before we took a picture.

“We waited and waited for a clear point when no-one was there as they wanted to hold their hands together. That’s why we’re sure there was no-one there.

“I didn’t think anything of it and took a few more. Then we got home and looked at the photos and saw this thing at the back of it that wasn’t there before.

“My sister said ‘Oh my God it’s a ghost’. I’ve started to think it might be. There was definitely no-one there when I took the picture.”

Read Full Story: Yorkshire Evening Post