A paranormal team investigated this Maine candy store, and yep, it’s haunted

This morning, Kathy Welle, owner of What the Actual Fudge candy store in Freeport, Maine, was working in the shop when she thought she heard her husband, Jim Welle, enter a locked room upstairs, set down heavy things, and walk around. 

Kathy began speaking to him as she walked up the stairs, only to enter the room and find no one was there. She said this was the most recent in a series of strange and unexplainable occurrences in her candy store’s historic building at 7 Mill St. 

“[I was] like, all right, I fell for it again,” Kathy said. 

The store owners and employees often hear footsteps when no one is around, things moving in the attic, doors opening and closing, and even papers flying off the top shelf as if someone had flicked them. Their security cameras also often detect motion when nothing is there, she said. 

“From the first time we stepped foot in the store, it felt odd,” Kathy said. “But we always joked [and] blamed everything on the ghosts. We’ve had a good time doing that, we hear a lot of things that we can’t explain.” 

The series of strange occurrences led an employee to seek the help of a Maine-based team of ghost hunters, the Ghost Hunting and Occult Study Team, led by paranormal enthusiast Mike Greenleaf of Litchfield.

Greenleaf said he formed the group about two years ago, and aims to work differently than the other paranormal groups out there. 

“I learned real quick that the groups that I run into kind of were doing it for the thrill of it, and I had a little bit of a problem with that,” he said. “I wanted to be somebody that people could turn to if they’re scared of something in their house, and they had no idea who to turn to … so I built the group around that idea of helping people understand what’s happening.”

Unlike other paranormal investigation groups, Greenleaf said they begin their investigations trying to disprove paranormal activity and look for other explanations.  

“We go in and pretty much try to show them that their place is not haunted,” he said. 

But when there is no other explanation, Greenleaf said they turn to the paranormal side of things. In the case of What the Actual Fudge candy store, Greenleaf said he felt a “different energy” in the store. 

Greenleaf and his team of seven investigators entered the store overnight on Sept. 18 from 6:30 p.m. until 5:30 a.m. the following morning, turned off all the lights and recorded video and audio on all three floors. 

Greenleaf said their rem pod, a device that lights up if an entity is close, lit up a “couple times” in the attic. 

“The focal point of that place seemed to be when we went up to the attic,” he said. “We went up there, and it was just, it’s hard to explain it, it felt different. It felt like something didn’t want you there.”

Greenleaf’s team attempted to communicate with the presence. Utilizing their equipment, they recorded evidence that included loud banging, a male voice yelling “get out,” whimpering in the attic, and references to a fire and violence, he said. 

Greenleaf presented the evidence to the Welles on Oct. 19, concluding that it is likely there is a paranormal presence in the store, as some evidence simply had no other explanation. 

Kathy said she appreciated that the investigation corroborated what they had been experiencing for months in the store. The investigation found a number of different possibilities for the origins of the mysterious presence, Kathy said. 

Greenleaf said paranormal activity is most common in historic buildings, like What the Actual Fudge’s building, built in 1888. 

“The brick from this building was taken from a lot of different places,” she said. “This building was built in 1888, and they used recycled brick to build it, and so did the spirits come along with the brick? Maybe.” 

Kathy noted she has never found the paranormal activity scary, just strange. 

“Haunted is an interesting word, it brings you right to the movies,” she said. “This feels like there’s things here besides us.”

Greenleaf said he hopes his group gives people an outlet for their experiences with paranormal activity, despite the stigma around ghost hunting. 

“There are so many more people out there that actually believe in ghosts that just don’t say it because they’re worried about being called crazy,” he said. “So, if you have had experience, say it.”