Today we were running errands around the Old Town area of San Diego. My boyfriend had to see someone for a few minutes and I told him my daughter and I would walk a few blocks to the Whaley House and he could pick us up there. We got there around 11AM and a woman stopped us and told us we couldn't go in. She was a nervous seeming woman and we could hear an alarm going on behind her. We walked around the outside of the house and I explained to my 7 year old a bit about the house and it's role in San Diego, For those of you that don't know, this is the oldest brick structure in San Diego; it was built around the 1850s. This may not seem too old but San Diego is relatively recently settled, compared to places on the East Coast. Anyway, the alarm kept going. We walked around to the front and the curator, a thin 50ish man, was talking to the nervous woman. I asked him, "What happened, did a ghost set the alarm off?" And he said "Yes, we're pretty sure that's what happened." He then told me that last night, Halloween, there was a line of about 800 people that wanted to go in the house. They'd decided they'd open up the house at night for amateur ghost hunters, but normally they're only open a few hours a day. When the docents arrived and saw the growing line that wrapped around the house and down the block one of them apparently said, "Old Thomas Whaley wouldn't want all these folks in here, it wouldn't surprise me if he set off the alarm". Well the curator swears that within 20 seconds, the alarm went off and the code used to deactivate it didn't work. When I got there this morning, it'd been going on since about 8PM last night. No one could figure out what to do. Apparently the house had internal motion detectors and although no one was inside at the time, they were triggered somehow. I heard recently that the Whaley House was officially known as the most haunted house in America. It's a beautiful and interesting place to visit.

Oh my gosh, Juliebelle! How odd - but funny in a way. I can't say I blame him for not wanting so many people in there at once. As I recall, he wasn't the nicest of men in life and I suppose hes probably still a stickler in the afterlife. Isn't that where Yankee Jim was hanged? Could it have been him who set it off? Hard to say, but pretty freaky how the one person mentioned it and it happened!

I wonder if they ever figured out how to turn the alarm off?

Kell

I bet the docents were surprised! How weird! I can't blame the ghost, I've never been much on crowds either.

Wow, what a great story. That house is on my list of places to visit, but I will make it a point to pick a less busy day.

I'm familar with the Whaley House in San Diego. Definitely a hot location for paranormal activity. Thanks for sharing this interesting story. Definitely sounds as though someone didn't want people in the house that evening.