German translation
Here is the story of the haunted wine box, exactly as it appeared
on eBay. You form your own opinion.
 The first
buyer an antique buyer-refinisher
All
of the events that I am about to set forth in this listing
are accurate and may be verified by the winning bidder with
the copies of hospital records and sworn affidavits that I
am including as part of the sale of the cabinet.
During
September of 2001, I attended an estate sale in Portland Oregon.
The items liquidated at this sale were from the estate of
a woman who had passed away at the age of 103. A grand-daughter
of the woman told me that her grandmother had been born in
Poland where she grew up, married, raised a family, and lived
until she was sent to a Nazi concentration camp during World
War II. She was the only member of her family who survived
the camp. Her parents, brothers, a sister, husband, and two
sons and a daughter were all killed. She survived the camp
by escaping with some other prisoners and somehow making her
way to Spain where she lived until the end of the war. I was
told that she acquired the small wine cabinet listed here
in Spain and it was one of only three items that she brought
with her when she immigrated to the United States. The other
two items were a steamer trunk, and a sewing box.
I purchased
the wine cabinet, along with the sewing box and some other
furniture at the estate sale. After the sale, I was approached
by the woman's granddaughter who said, I see you got the dibbuk
box. She was referring to the wine cabinet. I asked her what
a dibbuk box was, and she told me that when she was growing
up, her grandmother always kept the wine cabinet in her sewing
room. It was always shut, and set in a place that was out
of reach. The grandmother always called it the dibbuk box.
When the girl asked her grandmother what was inside, her grandmother
spit three times through her fingers said, a dibbuk, and keselim.
The grandmother went on to tell the girl that the wine cabinet
was never, ever, to be opened.
The
granddaughter told me that her grandmother had asked that
the box be buried with her. However, as such a request was
contrary to the rules of an orthodox Jewish burial, the grandmothers
request had not been honored. I asked the granddaughter what
a dibbuk, and keselim were, but she did not know. I asked
if she would like to open it with me. She did not want to
open it, as her grandmother had been very emphatic and serious
when she instructed her not to do so, and, regardless of the
reason, she wanted to honor her grandmother’s request.
I finally
ended up offering to let her keep what seemed to me to be
a sentimental keepsake. At that point, she was very insistent
and said, No, no you bought it!
I explained
that I didn’t want my money back, and that it would make me
feel better to do what I thought was an act of kindness. She
then became somewhat upset. Looking back now, the way she
became upset was just plain odd. She raised her voice to me
and said, you bought it! You made a deal!
When
I tried to speak, she yelled, we don't want it! She began
to cry, asked me to leave, and quickly walked away. I wrote
the whole episode off to the stress and grief she must have
been experiencing. I took my purchases and politely left.
At
the time when I bought the cabinet, I owned a small furniture
refinishing business. I took the cabinet to my store, and
put it in my basement workshop where I intended to refinish
it and give it as a gift to my Mother. I didn't think anything
more about it. I opened my shop for the day and went to run
some errands leaving the young woman who did sales for
me in charge.
After
about a half-hour, I got a call on my cell phone. The call
was from my salesperson. She was absolutely hysterical and
screaming that someone was in my workshop breaking glass and
swearing. Furthermore, the intruder had locked the iron security
gates and the emergency exit and she couldn't get out. As
I told her to call the police, my cell phone battery went
dead. \ I hit speeds of 100 mph getting back to the shop.
When I arrived, I found the gates locked. I went inside and
found my employee on the floor in a corner of my office sobbing
hysterically. I ran to the basement and went downstairs. At
the bottom of the stairs, I was hit by an overpowering unmistakable
odor of cat urine (there had never been any animals kept or
found in my shop). The lights didn't work. As I investigated,
I found that the reason the lights didn't work also explained
the sounds of glass breaking. All of the light bulbs in the
basement were broken. All nine incandescent bulbs had been
broken in their sockets, and 10 four-foot fluorescent tubes
were lying shattered on the floor. I did not find an intruder,
however. I should also add that there was only one entrance
to the basement. It would have been impossible for anyone
to leave without meeting me head-on. I went back up to speak
with my salesperson, but she had left.
She
never returned to work (after having been with me for two
years). She refuses to discuss the incident to this day. I
never thought of relating the events of that day to anything
having to do with the cabinet.
Then,
things got worse.
As
I already indicated, I had decided to give the cabinet to
my Mother as a birthday gift. About two weeks after I made
the purchase, I decided to get started refinishing it. I was
surprised to find that the cabinet has a unique little mechanism.
When you open one of the doors, the mechanism causes the opposite
door, and the little drawer below, to open at the same time.
It is very well made. Inside the cabinet, I found the following
items: 1 1928 U.S. Wheat Penny; 1 1925 US Wheat Penny; One
small lock of blonde hair (bound with string); One small lock
of black/brown hair (bound with string); One small granite
statue engraved and gilded with Hebrew letters (I have been
told that the letters spell out the word SHALOM); One dried
rosebud; One golden wine cup; One very strange black cast
iron candlestick holder with octopus legs.
I saved
all of the items in a box intending to return them to the
estate. The family has refused the items, so they will be
included in this sale of the cabinet.
After
opening the cabinet, I decided not to refinish it. I cleaned
it, and rubbed in some lemon oil. It was at this time that
I noticed that there was an inscription in Hebrew carved into
the back of the cabinet. I have no idea what it says or if
it is significant. I have included a picture of that inscription
below. On my mother’s birthday, October 28, 2001, my mother
called to tell me that she was going out of town with my sister
for three days, and we postponed celebrating her birthday
together until she returned. On October 31, 2001, my mother
came to my shop. We were going to have lunch together, but
before we were going to leave, I gave her the wine cabinet.
She seemed to like it. While she examined it, I went to make
a phone call. I hadn't been out of sight more than 5 minutes
when one of my employees came running into my office saying
that something was wrong with my mom.
When
I went back to see what the matter was, I found my mom sitting
in a chair beside the cabinet. Her face had no expression,
but tears were streaming down her cheeks. No matter how I
tried to get her to respond, she would not. She could not.
It turns out that my mother had suffered a stroke. She was
taken to the hospital by ambulance. She ended up suffering
partial paralysis, and losing her ability to speak and form
words (she has since regained the ability to speak). She could
understand things being said to her, and could respond by
pointing to letters of the alphabet to spell out words she
wanted to say. When I asked her the following day how she
was doing, she teared up and spelled out the words: N-O G-I-
F-T. I assured her that I had given her a gift for her birthday,
thinking that she didn’t remember, but she became even more
upset and spelled out the words: H-A-T-E G-I-F-T. I laughed
and told her not to worry. I told her I was sorry she didn’t
like the cabinet, and that I would get her anything she wanted
if she would promise to get well soon.
Still,
I didn't associate anything that had happened with the cabinet
itself or anything paranormal. Frankly, I don’t think I ever
even used the term paranormal until this last month.
I'll
try to make this short now. I gave the cabinet to my sister.
She kept it for a week, then gave it back. She complained
that she couldn't get the doors to stay closed and that they
kept coming open. There are no springs in the door mechanism
and I have never found that the doors come open. I gave it
to my brother and his wife who kept it for three days and
then gave it back. My brother said it smelled like Jasmine
flowers, while his wife insisted that it put out an odor of
cat urine. I gave it to my girlfriend who asked me to sell
it for her after only two days. I sold it the same day to
a nice middle aged couple. Three days later, when I came to
open the shop for the day, I found the cabinet sitting at
the front doors with a note that read, This has a bad darkness.
I had no idea what that meant. Anyway, I ended up taking it
home.
Then,
things got even worse.
Since
the day I brought it home, I began having a strange recurring
nightmare. Every time I have the horrible dream it goes something
like this: I find myself walking with a friend, usually someone
I know well and trust at some point in the dream, I find myself
looking into the eyes of the person that I am with. It is
then that I realize that there is something different, something
evil looking back at me. At that point in my dream, the person
I am with changes into what can only be described as the most
gruesome, demonic looking Hag that I have ever seen. This
Hag proceeds then, to beat the living tar out of me. I have
awakened numerous times to find bruises and marks on myself
where I had been hit by the old woman during the previous
night. Still, I never related the nightmares to the cabinet,
nor do I think that I ever would have.
About
a month ago, however, my sister, and my brother and his wife
came over to my house and spent the night. The following morning,
during breakfast, my sister complained that she had had a
horrible nightmare. She said that she recalled having had
it a couple of times before, and went on to describe my nightmare
exactly to the last detail. My brother and his wife froze
as they listened, and then chimed in that they had both had
had the exact same dreams during the night as well. The hair
was standing up on the back of my neck and still is. As we
talked, it became clear that the common denominator was that
each of us had had the nightmare during the times that the
cabinet was in our respective homes. I called my girlfriend
and asked if she could recall having any nightmares recently.
She described the same nightmare, same Hag, everything. When
I asked her if she remembered the date when she had the nightmare,
she said she did not. Then I
asked if it happened to be the night before she gave me the
cabinet back to sell for her. She said, Yeah! Hey, how did
you know that?!!!
Now
then, since my family discussion, it seems like all hell is
breaking loose. For a week afterward I started seeing what
I can only describe as shadow things in my peripheral vision.
In fact, numerous visitors to my house have claimed that they
have seen these shadow things. I put the cabinet in an outside
storage unit and was awakened when the smoke alarm in the
unit went off in the middle of the night. When I went to see
what was burning, I opened the door and didn’t see any smoke.
However, I did get hit with the smell of cat urine. When I
went back inside, the smell was there in my house. I DO NOT
OWN A CAT AND I NEVER HAVE. I went back outside and grabbed
the cabinet. I brought it back inside and tried to research
it on the Internet. While I was surfing the net, I fell asleep
and once again had the same freakin nightmare. I woke up at
around 4:30am (when it felt and smelled like someone was breathing
on my neck) to find that my house now smelled like Jasmine
flowers, and just in time to see a HUGE shadow thing go loping
down the hall away from me.
I would
destroy this thing in a second, except I really don’t have
any understanding of what I may or may not be dealing with.
I am afraid (and I do mean afraid) that if I destroy the cabinet,
whatever it is that seems to have come with the cabinet may
just stay here with me. I have been told that there are people
who shop on EBAY that understand these kinds of things and
specifically look for these kinds of items. If you are one
of these people, please, please buy this cabinet and do whatever
you do with a thing like this.
Help
me.
You
can see that I have no reserve price or minimum bid. If I
can make things any easier let me know and I will do everything
within my abilities.
One
more note. On the same day my Mom had her stroke, the lease
to my store was summarily terminated without cause.
The
measurements are 12.5" x 7.5" x 16.25"
ALL
OF THE ITEMS THAT I ORIGINALLY FOUND INSIDE THE CABINET ARE
INCLUDED IN THE SALE AND WILL BE DELIVERED WITH THE CABINET.
On
Jun-12-03 at 02:15:30
PDT, seller added the following information:
There is no way that I can respond to all of the e-mails I've received since
I put this thing on-line. I'll try now to update and answer
the most common questions I've been receiving.
1. No, I am not religious.
2. No, I do not wish to have or participate in any sort of exorcism, or case
study, or photo sessions at my home.
3. No, I will not sell any of the individual pieces which were originally found
separate from the other pieces and the cabinet.
4. No, I do not speak Hebrew nor do I know what the word "keselim"
means. I don't know that the word is even
or or a Hebrew word.
5. At the end of the auction, I have decided to take an opportunity to speak
with the winning bidder for two reasons: a.)To make sure that
the winning bidder is a serious adult who has employed some
valid reasoning skills in making the decision to accept whatever
this is. I will not be judgmental. Do whatever you want or need
after the sale. b.)To offer full details of the events that
have transpired. After I have carried out those responsibilities,
and upon payment, I will have the cabinet and its contents delivered
by U.S.MAIL, FED-EX, or UPS to the winning bidder. At that point,
I will have no further involvement with the matter in any way,
shape, or form. Period.
6.) To all of you who have offered to pray, I may not be religious, but I am
certainly open to the possibilities --no matter what your religion
might be. THANK YOU!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Jun-14-03 at 05:216 PDT, seller added the following information:
Here is another update for everyone following this listing.
NO! No, I will not circumvent, or make any deals outside of
EBAY - EVEN FOR MORE MONEY THAN THE FINAL AUCTION PRICE!!! If
you want to win the auction and have the kind of money some
of you are offering, there shouldn't be any reason why you cannot
simply place your bid in an open honest fashion. I'm sure you
can understand why I might be suspicious.
ALSO....
For those of you wanting to know if I am still experiencing anything out of
the ordinary, I thought everything was going OK until I got
home on Friday - the 13th of June - and found that the fish
in my fresh water aquarium - all 10 - were dead.
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