RIO GRANDE CITY ? Haunted houses are nothing new in Starr County. At the historic La Borde House, which is home to county offices, a restaurant and a hotel, the locals say things go bump in the night ? and during the day. At the county courthouse, lawyers and clerks tell stories of whispering ghosts in the halls.
But knowing about these haunted buildings didn?t lessen the surprise of the county?s compliance and collection department when pictures started falling off the walls of their new office space in a small house on East Street.
"Everything we put on the walls, they either fall down by the afternoon or we find them on the floor the next day," said Lisa Barrera, a collections department supervisor.
The department moved into the house, which it shares with another county office, in October. But it looks like they just moved in. The walls are almost bare, the almost-empty reception area, clean. The only things on the walls of Barrera?s spacious office are a calendar ? which she patiently re-hangs on its nail every morning because it always slips off overnight ? and a small framed picture of angels. The angels are the only things that have remained on the walls for any length of time.
"Maybe they like that one," Barrera said.
Who "they" are is unclear at best. While previous tenants have complained of phantoms, the last family to live in the house never saw or heard anything out of the ordinary.
"This is the first time I?ve heard of this," said Sonata Sanchez, whose husband?s family lived in the house until about 1989. None of the family members she asked knew of any specters or ghouls and said there?s never been a haunting in the house.
County attorney Victor Canales once worked in the building in the late 1990s when it housed a private law practice.
"I?m not one to believe much in the paranormal, to be honest," he said.
Still, a few of the sightings there freaked him out.
"I had one instance where myself and another lady were there, and I thought I saw her, she had crossed over the hallway. I called out ?Hey, Debbie,? and lo and behold, Debbie was actually at her desk on the other side of the house," he said.
For the collections department, the paranormal interference goes beyond disapproval of the decor. They have found imprints on tables that cannot be wiped off ? imprints of backsides too narrow to belong to office employees, as if a skinny girl had perched there.
They say they hear the front door open and close with a clatter of Venetian blinds, but find no one there. Friends call their names from adjacent rooms, but don?t admit to speaking. Occasionally, the ghosts will wash some invisible dishes in the kitchen sink, filling the house with the sound of running water.
And there?s the smell.
"Out of the blue, you?ll get this bitter smell," Barrera said. "Some days, we have to be with the Lysol all over the place, because it?s just ? an old-man smell. It?s really strong, and then it just goes away."
The tenants have made their peace with the odd little incidents, Barrera said. They?re funny, not really scary, she said, although the crash of light paintings hitting desks and the tinkle of broken glass can put employees on edge.
"Nobody likes to be here after five," she said.
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