Coin dropping ghost

In 1845 Dr. George L. Andrew set-tled in LaPorte, Ind., and soon began construction of one of the most impressive mansions ever built in the American midwest. In 1885 Andrews sold his mansion to the Dunn family, and in 1904 it passed into the hands of the Gwynne?. The Gwynne? who lived in the house at 10th and ?·Streets until 1948 were the first to ?otice the hauntings.·

?he hauntings,·for the most part, took the form of ghostly pranks. Doorbells rang on snowy nights but no footprints were found in the snow when the occupants answered the door. Bolted doors opened themselves; crashes like broken vases or falling pictures echoed through the house ·but no damage was found. The list goes on, but the most unusual prank ·the one that brought the story of Dr. Andrew? mansion to these pages ·was the leaving of coins.

Madelline Gwynne Kinney, the former curator of The LaPorte County Historical Museum, recollected that on one occasion she was cleaning an empty downstairs closet when she heard the sound of something being dropped on the floor behind her. Turning, she discovered two pennies and two nickels dated 1876, 1877, 1867, and 1869. She found no cracks or any place in the empty closet where the coins could have fallen from.

The same closet later produced coins for the Zimmerman?, the last family to live at 10th and ?·Streets. Mrs. Zimmerman removed the wallpaper from the closet, washed the walls and gave the whole thing a thorough cleaning from top to bottom. Apparently she did a better job than Mrs. Kenney, for she was rewarded with a pile of old silver coins left squarely in the middle of the closet floor. The coins·arrival was preceded by a faint clinking sound after the closet door had been closed. The Zimmerman? suffered more from ghostly pranks than any of the other previous inhabitants and after they moved away no one ever lived there again, although groups of occultists reportedly met in the mansion to perform strange rituals.

In 1970, the mansion was torn down to make way for a medical center. No more coins have appeared, but medical center employees insist that the ghostly pranks continue. Personally, I believe that by definition, a ghost is something that doesn? really exist; but those who do believe in ghosts might wonder if the appearance of the coins and other pranks might not have been an attempt to alert the inhabitants of a cache of money either in the house or on the grounds. Since the employees of the medical center insist that the ghost is still active, might not the cache still be near by?