Al Laubehim, a novelties distributor, was having issues in his warehouse. Things started popping and dropping off shelves and skittering across the warehouse floor. The police had no explanation, so Mr. Laubehim called two psychics.

The first psychic said a giant dragon or alligator was knocking things off the shelves. The second psychic said it was a poltergeist.

A young shipping clerk eventually admitted to causing the disturbances with a system of strings and threads. Police Sargent James Haddad explained the clerk was undergoing psychiatric care. Haddad said the clerk was also responsible for a burglary at the warehouse. Mr. Laubehim refused to press charges and even paid for some of the clerk’s psychiatric care.

Psychic researchers thought there was a paranormal explanation. Researcher Susie Smith said, “No threads or string were found. Magicians have told me this could not have been done by magic. How do you push a nine-pound box with string?”

The head of the Psychical Research Foundation (Durham, N.C.), W.G. Rolls, saw the clerk make no motions while he observed one of the disturbances. Rolls explained “Perhaps, the truth lies somewhere in between: That a force in his mind was partially responsible, but that one occasion he decided to throw something to speed things up.”

The story takes place in Miami.

Source: The South Bend Tribune, Indiana, February 5, 1967 (page 21).