DARCIE FLANSBURG, Staff Writer
REDLANDS - Cameras installed at Mariposa Elementary School continue to catch ghost hunters seeking to play with children who supposedly died on the campus.
One ghost hunter, Dustin Coffman, 17, of Yucaipa, said that a little boy who apparently died in the nurse's office years ago will knock back if you knock on the door to the office.
Coffman also said that the swings on campus are another location to catch ghosts. It is said that if a person swings on one swing, the other will move as well.
Coffman and his fellow ghost hunters, Elias Aparicio, 17, of Yucaipa and Matt Booth, 19, of Redlands, realized Thursday night that the ghost story was not only a story, but that trespassing on the elementary school campus was not worth a police citation.
Officer Cindy Gourlay asked the hunters to tell their friends of their findings and to deter them from trying it themselves.
"It's a waste of time," she said. "And some kids come up and break things and kill plants."
Gourlay also said that when people trespass onto the campus, police are forced to come all the way out to Palo Alto Drive far from the downtown area of Redlands.
"If anything were to happen elsewhere, how long would it take me to get out there from here?" Gourlay questioned.
Ghost hunters come in droves to the campus around Halloween every year. It is not only a tradition in Redlands but has also been noted by newspapers in the surrounding area.
Aparicio said that he had read about the Mariposa ghost in an article by the Los Angeles Times while Booth had read an article in the Daily Facts about the 13 haunted areas in Redlands.
But police are aware of the trespassers' antics. Aparicio, Booth and Coffman had been on campus only five minutes before Officer Leslie Martinez arrived.
The cameras installed to prevent trespassing have been quite effective in preventing any further damage.
Source: http://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/news/ci_3955979
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