Paranormal Cops? wtf
Bridgeport Police Officer Jim Myers, front center, poses with other members of the East Coast Paranormal Police as Rob Johnson, of Pangolin Pictures, films them for the opening scene of a documentary being shot Monday at the Palace Theater in Bridgeport.Oh no! Another paranormal reality show being pitched.
This is kind of sad. These networks are throwing in all this money in order to produce these paranormal shows and the investigators are happy to accept the money. But if only they would put all that attention and money into real investigative techniques and research…. Paranormal Cops? please….
I understand that cops are trained to observe, but does the ECPP have any clue to what they are really doing, besides taking temperature readings and walking around with night-shot cameras?
BRIDGEPORT, Connecticut —- When the ghosts that haunt Bridgeport’s old Poli Palace theater get out of line, who you gonna call?
Why the cops, of course —- or, more specifically, the East Coast Paranormal Police.
Now, the newly formed ECPP might have a shot at fame. On Monday, a TV producer was in town to shoot footage of the ghost-hunting cops in action inside the Poli Palace and Majestic theaters downtown on Main Street, two long-abandoned, historic showplaces that score high on the creepiness scale.
“Today, we’re doing a pitch tape for a new show we have in mind,” said Rob Johnson, a production coordinator for Pangolin Pictures. “We understand that the Poli Palace might be haunted and Jim Myers suspects that there might be a poltergeist here.”
Jim Myers, a 12-year veteran with the Bridgeport Police Department, is the man behind the ECPP, which has been getting help from one of the heavy hitters in the ghost-hunting business, famed psychic and Monroe resident Lorraine Warren.
Pangolin, which has three Emmy Awards to its credit, is primarily a producer of nature films for cable networks. These include “Tarantulas: King of Spiders” and “Jaws and Claws.”
Johnson notes that while there are other ghost-hunter shows, Pangolin likes the fact that Myers uses “police training” to investigate strange occurrences.
“We think that’s an interesting angle that will be new to paranormal shows,” he said. “In ‘Ghost Hunters,’ they’re plumbers by
trade. Jim’s group all have had police training.”
On Monday, Johnson and his assistant, Gina Fitch, were busy shooting footage of Myers and his 11-person team as they explored the dusty innards of the Poli Palace and two attached buildings, the Majestic theater and the Savoy Hotel.
In 2007, the direct-to-video cop action flick starring Steven Seagal shot in downtown Bridgeport included scenes filmed at the Poli and Majestic theaters. The showcases continued screening movies sporadically into the early 1970s, long past their glory days as venues for elaborate live entertainment, and later for first-run Hollywood movies. Through the early 1950s, it wasn’t unusual for movie stars to turn out on opening night to boost attendance.
While plans have been floated over the years to restore the theaters, nothing has ever become of them.
Johnson hopes that the pitch tape, which will be about five minutes long, will be pedaled to the various cable channels, such as Discovery, National Geographic Channel, TLC, the History Channel and so forth. He said that it may take six months or longer for the channels to decide whether to proceed with the idea.
“It’s just a quick piece to show Jim and his team, and what they can do,” Johnson said, “and to show the network what it would look
like as a series.”
If a network picks up the idea, the ECPP would be central to the show, which would follow the team as it checks out various reports of paranormal activity up and down the East Coast, Johnson said.
Bridgeport City Historian Mary Witkowski, also interviewed Monday by Johnson, said there’s no shortage of reasons why there might be strange goings-on inside the theaters.
“First it could be the Golden Hill Paugusset [Indian] tribe, whose graves may have been disturbed when they built there. It could be Dutch Schultz, the rum-runner who was murdered in New Jersey —- he did a lot of business in Bridgeport back in the 1930s. Or, it even could be Mae West —- she had performed here, got into trouble and spent the night in jail,” Witkowski said. “Maybe she wants to get back at us.”
Myers said he has 16 to 18 members in the ECPP, and all are trained in police work.
“I actually come in here on a weekly basis because the city gave me the key, so I can keep an eye on the place,” Myers said. “I’ve seen a couple of photos that were taken here that were pretty strange.”
Full source: ConnPost.com
Written by Javier Ortega - javier@ghosttheory.com
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How original. Use the “who you gonna” call lead for the story.
ok were is Tackleberry and High tower,,,,
have say gang its getting really silly now,,,,next we will have Paranormal fans wearing Bagdes and carrying proton packs,,,lol
You have the right to remain silent but anything you say will be used as EVP,,,,,WTF
Leinster Danny,
They should have that guy who makes sounds effects. That would be awesome.
On a serious note: Cable stations are trying desperately to exploit the “paranormal craze”. To me, the only good show that I’ve seen is the Discovery Channel’s “A haunting”. Good stuff.
i agree 100% Javier
What ever happened to the friday movie on ghost theory,,,i used to look forward to it,
has to better than watching Paranormal Cops,,,anyday,,,lol
Leinster Danny,
Well, I wasn’t sure if I should continue doing it.
I guess I should have polled the readers to see if they care for it.
I guess I got your vote
Javier you have my vote,,anytime bud,,love this site,,Keep up the exellent work
Count me in on that one,Javier!Your site is the highlight of my day. Were you down for a while yesterday or was my computer acting up? Scared me, Buddy!
Marie,
Thanks for the kind words!
As far as I know, there were no outages with the server.
Glad to see you are back posting comments!
I’ll start up the “Movie Friday” again.
Hey Javier, If they are hiring cops as paranormal investigators for a t.v. show, how about producing one with America’s top chefs investigating haunted kitchens?…rofl.
I gotta agree with you on “A Haunting”, it is good stuff;don’t know why they stop producing this show. By the way, love your site here, found out on coasttocoastam.com today!
South Dakota guy,
hahah, I think Chef Gordon Ramsey has that niche cornered.
Yea, I saw a lot of traffic today coming from CoasttoCoastam KFI AM 640.
That’s awesome.
I hope you get a chance to check out all our articles and become a regular.
Thanks!
WTF…is right’ I’m a former Private Investigator, and I can tell you, there is different training for different fields, I would trust a fellow Para I over a cop any day!
interesting *~*
well, at least we’ve been warned
I thought there was already a show called paranormal cops that was going to air on A&E? Who are these guys?
Your right Bob. These guys are copy cats. They are a day late and a dollar short.
I have 2 or 3 episodes of a show that I recorded on video about 2 or 3 or 4 years ago, some time between 2005-2007 I think, but I will have to go through my hundreds of videos to find it. It was on Dish Network, Channel 204, Court TV, and it was called ‘Phenomena Police’. Those were the only episodes that they ever aired on that channel. As far as I know it was never aired on any other channel, and has never been on Court TV again. There were a couple of episodes on ‘Cops’ that dealt with hauntings. One was a woman who said that a ghost lived in a cabinet in her house, and the other was a family who said that their house is haunted. I also have them on video. In about 2000 or 2001, I saw an episode of ‘Cops’ which had to do with neighbors seeing someone in an abandoned funeral home. I think it was worth over a million dollars, but was up for sale for $80,000. It had a hand carved winding teak wood staircase. It was a beautiful old house. In the basement it still had the embalming tables, embalming machines, bottles of embalming fluid, etc. Upstairs on the ground floor and second story, it still had all of the furniture, pictures, towels, perfume, clothing, dishes, EVERYTHING that belonged to the owners. They left in such a hurry to get out of there that they didn’t take anything with them. They left with nothing but themselves. The cops didn’t find anyone in the house. I’ve always wondered why those people left in such a hurry and never went back. Unfortunately, at that time I didn’t have a working VCR.
LOOOOOOOOOOOL I LIVE IN BRIDGEPORT HAAHHAHAHAHHAHAHA…. I GOT ARRESTED BY ONE OF THE DUDES ON THIS SHOW LMAOO!!!!!! THEY ARE REALLY MAKING A SHOW… WOW THATS FUNNY
I hope those ghosts have good attorneys.
It’s all pretty fucking lame.