Unconvincing Ghost Chases Car

According to local legend, the English town of Blackburn is haunted by the ghost of a monk who was executed hundreds of years ago. Last week, this video was posted to the Internet purporting to be footage of Blackburn's local phantom. Looking over the video, though, the "ghost" is not very convincing.

The video, posted without explanation on Thursday, is taken from a car and shows a hunched figure in white in the distance. As the car tries to back away, the figure keeps approaching.

Someone in the car can be heard screaming in a foreign language. The Daily Record reports that the person is shouting "Move the car backwards!" and "Faster! faster!" in Arabic.

Local historian and author Simon Entwistle told The Citizen newspaper that the "ghost" in the video may be the spirit of a monk who was executed in Turton Tower.

"It's the actual timing that I find quite unusual, this person was executed in early January 1643, and the ghost will only make an appearance in the early January period," Entwistle was quoted as saying.

But Entwistle may not be the most objective expert. As commenters on that page pointed out, he hosts ghost tours of the area.

Most commenters who have seen the video think it's fake and I have to agree.There's no evidence that this is a paranormal entity rather than a person wearing a costume consisting of a white sheet, a walking stick, and a dark wig. It doesn't appear or disappear, it's not translucent, it moves no faster than a person could walk, and so forth.

As it's not clear whether the people in the car are in on it, this could also be a prank at their expense. But either way, I'm confident that there's a person inside that outfit rather than some sort of undead spirit. For that matter, it might be Entwistle himself. What better way to drum up business for ghost tours than running around pretending to be a ghost and making sure people report sightings?