Ghostly Figure Spotted at Indian Restaurant

Chester Chroinicle ^ | Apr 30, 2014 | David Holmes

[nickcarraway]

Owner of Bombay Palace in Upper Northgate Street unnerved by snapshot

This ghoulish face peering out of the darkness from the gents in a city centre Indian restaurant is enough to give anybody the willies.

Aaron Ali, co-owner of the family-run Bombay Palace restaurant in Upper Northgate Street, Chester, was sitting in the dark at the front of the eating house about 3am one morning, just before last Christmas, when he heard the sound of a door banging.

Everybody else had gone home, except for the waiter who had retired to his upstairs living quarters, and Mr Ali decided to film the scene on his mobile because he was slightly unnerved by the noise.

However, his mobile was set on stills camera mode and he took a snap shot which looked innocuous at first. However, on zooming in he spotted the creepy looking face in the background, positioned where the gents toilet mirror is located.

Mr Ali explained: “I thought it must be the light hitting the mirror in the gents toilet because when we clean up we use a mop to hold the door open. I thought it was some sort of reflection.

“When you first look at the photo you think there’s nothing there but when you zoom in you can see what looks like a face.”

Mr Ali said customers, a handyman who does work at the restaurant, the chef and his brother Zafor, with whom he runs the business, had always thought there was “something” towards the back of the building.

In addition, an empty coffin had been found in the cellar of the restaurant in the 1980s with no explanation as to what it was doing there.

Mr Ali, from Newton, denied altering the image, saying: “I don’t know anything about computers.”

He had been reluctant to share the photo because he does not want to unsettle his young children who often visit the restaurant. “I don’t want to scare them,” he said.

[ExCTCitizen]

I respectfully disagree. There are ghosts.

[Therapsid]

For certain

[SatinDoll]

You sound like my father who died about 20 months ago in an assisted living facility across town from his house.

I inherited his house and my nephew lives with me there while he looks for work. Many people, friends of my nephew who have come to visit, have seen a tall bearded man, white beard and white clothing, accompanying my nephew immediately outside the house or watching them inside the home.

My nephew shows them family photos we have framed and hanging on a wall. The visitors always identify the ghost as my dad.

He has never appeared or spoken to me, but has twice notified me with his pipe tobacco smoke to the presence of small electrical fires in the home’s walls.

Believe in ghosts? What do you think. My father certainly did not believe in them and our situation is certainly ironic.

[ExCTCitizen]

I was at J. Pasco's with a sales rep for a business meeting. He saw the silverware moving, too.

Great food there.

[az_gila]

Probably a ruse to get the restaurant included on the local ghost tours so tourists will come back and eat...:^)

Ghost tours seem to be a giant business in all of the old UK cities.

First few hits on Google -

http://www.ghostcity.co.uk/

http://www.hauntedchester.com/tours.htm

http://chesterghosttours.webs.com/

However, Chester's old city centre is certainly worth a visit -

[reed13k]

I was in Tours France about 4 weeks ago for business in a very old hotel (had been visited by Napoleon, Churchill, and a ton of other notables,I’d give it 3.5 stars) on like the 6th floor or so and at 2:30 in the morning someone grabbed me by the shoulder and pulled me partially up out of bed. I’m fairly certain I hollared out loud. Pulled the hand off turned looked - nothing. Turned all the lights on nothing. But I could feel something toward the window watching me. Sat up the rest of the night talking to it - said a few prayers as well. Funny thing is I’m not sure if he (the feel of the hand on my shoulder was a guys) understood a word I spoke - after all he was likely French. Likely the scariest thing that I’ve ever had happen to me - worse then the car rollover, etc.

In the 80s coming home from work one night (Thursday 13th full moon not a cloud about 10pm) during high school I ran over a large cat by the old town graveyard - it was coming out of the drainage ditch across the road. The Ford Escort I was in lifted up on both front and back wheels so I knew I’d hit it and hard. Got out of the car to see if I could ID it and notify the owner...it was a small town...nothing, no cat, no stains, no fur, no prints. I went back the next day nothing. It was just gone.

[sheana]

Since my mother passed over 4 years ago I have had the same thing happen twice....and she did not live with me or die here.
I am laying on our couch in the afternoon watching tv and kind of in the zone where totally relaxed but not asleep when I clearly hear her say my name. Both times I have sat straight up and looked around when Hubby will look at me and say....what?