05 Apr, 2012 10:59 AM
Article from The City Weekly
The truth is out there and it’s in suburban Adelaide, apparently. Closed-circuit TV footage from a supermarket in Brompton, South Australia, recently showed “unexplained footage” – and no, it’s not of a shopper getting through the 12-items-or-less-queue with 73 items.
The footage, captured on security cameras in the dead of night, shows a packet of fruit snacks being flung from a shelf. With no evidence of a break-in, no security alarms activated and no other human being visible in the footage, ghosts – that’s ghosts, not rats – were blamed for the event and the matter was suddenly in the hands of the Adelaide Paranormal Detectives.
One theory about the “spooky” occurrence is that it’s linked to the death of world-famous boxer Bora Altintas, who was shot dead in front of the store in 1998.
Let me make it clear: I am a sceptic. When I watched The X-Files I was definitely barracking for Scully (although I certainly wouldn’t have minded giving Mulder a quick rub-down.)
Being a sceptic makes me wary of this supermarket ghost story. For starters, I found it on the internet and we all know real ghost stories are told around campfires. If I’d found the story on the internet and it had consisted of a news reporter being filmed talking while sitting somewhere near an open flame – even while just brandishing a Zippo lighter – perhaps I would have found it slightly more credible.
Besides which, stuff gets flung from supermarket shelves all the time. Especially when I get distracted and accidentally let The Sprout get too close when she’s in the trolley. (Last week we went up and down about four aisles before I realised she’d been clutching a packet of Ansell sibling-stoppers the whole time – no wonder people had been glaring at me disapprovingly.)
As for the event being related to the boxer’s death, let me tell you, Bora Altintas was an underworld figure known to mix with outlaw bikies. I’m reasonably certain that if he was in any way still around, he would have far more interesting things to do at 11.30pm than chuck a packet of Roll-ups. This is far more likely to be the work of what’s known in the retail trade as a “mystery shopper”.
Mystery shoppers are people who visit stores and businesses anonymously at the request of the owners to observe and report on the quality of customer service.
Years ago when I worked in retail I didn’t actually know that but it still sounded a bit exciting, so when I was told to “treat every customer as though they might be a mystery shopper” I imagined that meant that at any moment, any customer might be about to anonymously present me with a large amount of money via a novelty cheque.
Regardless, mystery shoppers are meant to go pretty much unnoticed. I wouldn’t be surprised if one had gone so unnoticed at the Brompton supermarket that they had become wedged inside a grocery shelf and were now randomly flinging out fruit snacks at odd hours in an attempt to subtly remind the owner that they were still there and were now billing overtime.
And now for the Adelaide Paranormal Detectives: I’d like to tell you more about them but they are not on the internet, although if I ever happen to come across somebody telling a story about them around a campfire, I’ll let you know. You can follow Terri on Twitter @terripsiakis
Article from The City Weekly
Turn the hopelessness within you into a fruitful opportunity. By RIDO
