Family sues landlord after 'ghosts' force them to flee rental house (and it's in same town where Amityville Horror was filmed)

A family has filed a lawsuit after ‘paranormal activity’ forced them to leave their New Jersey rental home.

Josue Chinchilla and Michele Callan lasted just one week in the Toms River, New Jersey ranch before fleeing in the middle of the night when they claimed a spirit tugged off their bedsheets.

Now they are suing their landlord, Dr. Richard Lopez, a well-known orthodontist in Ocean County who runs a practice next door to the 'haunted' house.



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The haunting: Josue Chinchilla, left, and his fiancee, Michele Callan lasted just one week in the Toms River, New Jersey ranch

House of horrors? The engaged couple has filed a lawsuit after 'paranormal activity' forced them to leave their New Jersey rental home

They want their $2,250 security deposit returned to them, claiming that the property is haunted, Asbury Park Press reported.

The couple moved into the three-bedroom ‘ghost house’ with Ms Callan’s two children on March 1.



Strange things started happening almost immediately, which they initially thought were to do with the pains of moving.



But over the course of the next seven days, they said, they began to realise they were sharing their home with supernatural beings.



Flickering lights, menacing voices and flapping doors spooked the couple, who said they would regularly go home to find clothes and towels strewn across the floor.



As a point of interest, the first three Amityville Horror films were shot in the same town as the rental house.



The films, in turn, were based on a book by Jay Anson, which details so-called real paranormal experiences in the 1970s.



Recordings: The family sought help from two paranormal investigative teams: the Shore Paranormal Research Society and NJ Paranormal Investigators, who set up cameras and ghost-busting equipment in the home

The couple claimed to have heard voices whispering ‘let it burn,’ as well as footsteps coming from the basement.

The final straw came on March 10, when Mr Chinchilla, 37, and Ms Callan, 36, were in bed watching television.



They heard what sounded like tapping on the top of the set before the bedsheets were suddenly tugged from over them.



Mr Chinchilla said he felt an invisible hand on his arm, while Ms Callan claimed to have seen a dark figure in the bedroom.

The experience freaked them so much that they bolted to a nearby hotel shortly after 1am with Ms Callan’s teenage daughter and six-year-old son.

Fearing for their safety if they return to the house, the family has been living in a single room at a Point Pleasant Beach motel since March 13.

But Mr Lopez isn’t buying their supernatural claims, and has filed a counter suit against the couple for breaking their one-year lease.



Ghostly: Paranormal hunters captured a bowling pin, bottom left, topple on its own accord - often caused by a residual spirit, they said

Not yours: When Ms Callan told the spirit to get out of her house, the tracking light on the right suddenly turned on

His attorney, David A. Semanchik, told APP that the house has been home to tenants for more than 10 years, with no one else having reported ghostly activity.

'Frankly, there is something else going on,' he said. 'She is a single mom, she has this fiancé living with her.

'I think she is in over her head and she can’t afford the rent. She needed to show her ex, the father of her kids, that she has a good place for them to live.'

The family has sought help from two paranormal investigative teams: the Shore Paranormal Research Society and NJ Paranormal Investigators, who set up cameras and ghost-busting equipment in the home.



Familiar territory: The first three versions of the Amityville Horror movies were shot in Toms Landing, New Jersey

The teams have several hours of recordings to go through before they will make their findings public, but Marianne Brigando, co-founder of Old Bridge-based NJ Paranormal Investigators said they believe the house is indeed haunted.

'We were shocked,' she told APP. 'Out of all of the investigations we have done, this is where we came up with the most concrete evidence in close to 20 investigations. We believe it is somebody that has passed away and not passed on yet.'

Ms Brigando added that their findings indicate it could be the work of a demon, personally haunting Ms Callan.

'This has been a horrific nightmare for us,' said the mom-of-two, ‘there’s no way I’m going back there.’



