Hooter's Investigation

The Ghost Research Society was the first paranormal team to investigate Hooter's on March 12, 2006!

BUILDING LOCATION: 660 N. Wells, Chicago, Illinois.

MEMBERS PRESENT: Dale Kaczmarek, Stan Suho, Jim Graczyk, Mike Ganster, Alana Grelyak, Chris Fleming and Roy Baggio.

INVESTIGATION TIME: Sunday, March 12th, 2006 11:30 pm - 3 am.

HISTORY OF THE BUILDING/PRESENT DAY HAUNTINGS: The present-day Hooter's opened up just before Halloween in 1991. A bartender and waitress claimed a number of ghostly events, primarily in the storage room in the basement. She would often hear her name being called when no one was around and sometimes a touch on the shoulder, causing her to turn around and nobody was there. The manager confirmed a number of these sightings and described some of her own including the sound of a person running up behind her as she descended the stairs to the basement. After a recent phone installation, she claimed that all the phones would ring simultaneously and when the phone company came to check out the lines, she was told that nothing was amiss. Several other waitresses feel uncomfortable in the basement while others smell a weird odor that cannot be described. The GRS team was originally told that bodies from the Eastland disaster of 1915 were stored in the basement, however there is no validity to that rumor as all the bodies went to the 2nd Regiment Armory, later to become Harpo Studios where the Oprah Show is taped.

INVESTIGATION: Several night vision cameras were set up throughout the basement some focusing into various rooms where during the initial sweep, higher than normal EMF readings were discovered. These cameras were then monitored from a separate location on television monitors. Tape recorders for EVP were set up in a few places and the G.E.I.S.T. system with the Ion Detector, Tri-Field Meter and Geiger Counter was also employed.

POST-INVESTIGATION ANALYSIS AND MEMBER REPORTS: According to Chris F. most of the activity was between the large hallways in the back by the closet and the generator. The air was different and the energy that exists there is related to spirit activity. It seems that the EVPs, orbs on video, as well as readings captured on temperature gauges all occurred in that area. Chris F. felt the presence of a female and possibly two males with the female prominent in the closet room while the male was nearer to the generator. Roy B. captured some drastic temperature drops in both the closet and in front of the generator room. From 65 to 55 degrees in a minute and back up again in the exact same spot to the other location of 62 degrees down to 49 degrees in front of the generator door. His battery on his camera went dead after only 30 minutes while it should have lasted for 1-2 hours at full charge.

There were some EVP voices and sounds picked up which at present are still currently being evaluated and are subject to conjecture and speculation. Alana G. had a few interesting photographs with her digital camera including a glowing spot on a fire extinguisher which most likely isn't a flash reflection.

Jim G. stated: "I used my Sony Nightvision camera, that was placed in the main hallway, far west end of the hall, recording facing east. I had to run about 50 feet of coax to the command post to monitor the activity on my camera. I really did not get any feelings at the investigation. It just seemed like an older basement that was well below ground. My findings using the Magnetic Field Detector II is that the basement has lots of wires running all over that basement. I did pick up many high readings of EMF towards the ceiling, because of the many electrical wires. Almost everywhere you walk in the basement you had wires/cables running above your head. The basement I believe is overly high on EMF which may be charging the atmosphere producing the activity at the building. I got nothing unusual on review of my video tape of almost three hours of recording. I do believe that this place should be looked into more and find out more about the history of the building."

Dale K. stated: "While I did not feel anything unusual throughout the evening, we did see several rather large orb-like appearances on the monitors that looked rather remarkable. When we were all more quiet and closer to the command post, it seemed that more things showed up on video and that the area was more active and less encroached upon."

Evidence collected:

EVP from Hooter's Restaurant in Chicago, Illinois. It was run through Audacity and says, "Shut it off."

EVP cleaned up with Audacity from Hooter's Restaurant in Chicago, Illinois that says, "He seems to walk away."