The Philippine Online Chronicles

On Monday night, two glass vials purportedly containing the ghosts of two dead people went for a tidy sum at an online auction in New Zealand, with the proceeds going to an animal welfare group.

The seller, Avie Woodbury, who hails from the southern city of Christchurch, claimed that the spirits had been captured in the bottles after she had her New Brighton home exorcised last July.

The winning bid was AUD2,830 (P117,797.73). Woodbury said that any profit above the cost of removing the spirits would be donated to the Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).

The vials were put up for sale on Trade Me, an auction web site put up in 1999 by computer consultant Sam Morgan. Associated Press reported Trade Me spokesperson Paul Ford as saying that the auction attracted more than 214,000 page views and dozens of questions before it closed.

The winning bidder, Woodbury said, could revive the ghosts by opening the vials and letting the water evaporate.

Woodbury got in touch with an exorcist from a spiritualist church because she was  "freaked out" by bizarre activity taking place inside her house, which she attributed to her use of an Oujia board. She believes that one is the soul of Les Graham, a man who died in her house in the 1920s, while the other, "more powerful" ghost is a little girl.

The spirits were bottled with holy water because the water is supposed to "sort of [put] them to sleep" or dull their energy. Nothing spooky or disturbing has occurred in the house since the spirits were caught, Woodbury said.

As of this writing, Trade Me has nearly 2.5 million active members, and just under 1.5 million listings. Set up specifically for New Zealanders, the site bears the tagline, "Where Kiwis Buy and Sell."

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites