By Tim Binnall
A government agency in New Zealand that was tasked with looking into whether or not their headquarters is haunted has issued the findings from their legally mandated investigation. Last month, the country's Department of Internal Affairs received what is akin to an FOIA request from a paranormal research group asking for information about any potential paranormal happenings at their main office. Since the inquiry was filed via New Zealand's Official Information Act, the department was actually required by law to provide some kind of answer to the group and, late last week, they shared some rather interesting insights into the matter.
In their official response, the department indicated that, in fact, they had uncovered some chatter among employees on an internal DIA online message board regarding potential ghostly encounters in the Department of Internal Affairs offices. Remarkably, they actually included the conversation with the employees' names omitted. Titled, "so there is no easy way to ask this … ghosts?," the exchange began with one worker wondering if anyone had "any stories or experiences" during their time working for the Department of Internal Affairs.
While the question was largely dismissed by the other employees, a handful of workers revealed that they had encountered something unusual. One staff member wrote that "we have the infamous lower level 1 ghost here at Archives Wellington." This person described the spooky experience of being in the building's elevator when "the floor counter inside the lift flickers and the doors open on lower level 1, no one is there it is dark and you either stand there unsure of what to do or mash the close door button before something gets in."
As one might imagine, a skeptical employee responded to that tale by musing that the elevator was probably just malfunctioning. However a different account from another staff member is particularly tantalizing, yet also quite maddening. That's because they wrote, "I can confirm I have seen a specter around level 13. It stared at me just long enough for me to take a quick photo." Alas, although the worker posted this purported ghost photo to the forum, the release from the DIA stated "the staff member who posted a photograph is no longer working at the Department and the link to the photograph is not active," leaving us to wonder what the image may have shown.
Sadly, it would appear that the conversation among employees was the only information uncovered by the department in their 'ghost hunt.' Regarding the other questions asked in the exhausting request, the agency said that they found no reports of "unusual environmental observations" and they had no "environmental monitoring mechanisms" in their office. And, finally, as to the question of what measures they have taken to "alleviate a potential paranormal situation," the department replied that "there is nothing in place to deal specifically with this issue. If it arose, we would work through this like any other issue and liaise with the appropriate groups."