Woman Captures Footage of 'Mysterious Figure' While Video Chatting with Friend

The eerie figure can be seen over the woman’s shoulder. (Image credit: Caters Clips/YouTube)

47-year-old Lori Simmons of Yakima, Washington, was using the app Marco Polo to chat with her friend on the morning of November 30th when her friend noticed something unusual.

“I'd only just moved into my apartment, so I was video chatting with my friend to show her around and I was just talking about general things. It was nothing out of the ordinary," she told the Daily Mirror. "We were using an app called Marco Polo, which is like a video walkie talkie. You can hit the start button to record, and others can watch you in real time like a regular video call. You can then replay it."

"But all of a sudden, her face got really serious and she asked if someone was in the house with me," said Simmons.

"I live alone but I instantly looked around because it was so weird the way she said it and it really frightened me," she continued. "I told her I was home alone. She looked pretty shocked and told me to watch my video again to see what I thought. She said it was like someone was following me around the house."

"So I watched it, and my heart jumped into my throat. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was so scary. It sent chills down my spine, and just shocked me so much," said the frightened mother of four. "I've had lots of paranormal experiences in my life, but nothing quite like this. I've only cried twice in my entire life from things that I've seen, but this did make me cry."

Simmons said she was so unnerved by the event that she stayed the night at her daughter’s house, and the next day had a friend ‘clean and bless’ her house—although she is unsure of the entity’s nature.

"I showed the video to people at my work and they actually screamed. That scared me, to see their reactions," Simmons said. "I believe it was the spirit of a teenage boy, maybe 13 or 14 years old. But many people have said they think it's an alien. I definitely believe in aliens, so it's certainly a possibility.”

She added that she is determined to stay in the house, which was built in 1935 and located adjacent to both a nursing home and 19th century hospital.

"People have told me to move out, but you can't run from these types of things,” she said.

Her friend from the video, Shana, originally thought that she had seen a human child walking behind Simmons.

"I seriously thought someone was walking behind her, like a human child," Shana said. "I watched this all happen in real time on the app. I saw this thing peek around the corner at me as if to see if we were still talking."

"I've watched this video probably 1000 times and it still creeps me out. I kind of felt like it wanted to be seen, almost playful," she explained. "I believe it was the spirit of someone who has passed and wants to be acknowledged. It was very startling to see. I can't stop thinking about it."

Those skeptical of the video pointed out the possibility that Simmons could have captured a mundane object that merely seemed strange under the circumstances.

"Looks like a weird statue on her kitchen counter," one viewer commented on the video posted to Caters Clips YouTube channel.

The statue under Simmons’ left arm appears at 00:04 into the video. (Image credit: Caters Clips/YouTube)

"At 4 seconds into the video you can see a statue on the counter and then she walks around it to the cabinet and its that statue that you are seeing. She should do a follow up video showing the statue from this angle to prove it," commented another.

Those skeptical of Simmons’ evidence think that the immobile statue merely appeared to move due to Simmons herself moving in relation to it as she walks around, and that being backlit by a lamp is what gave the statue its eerie appearance.

It is unclear—if it is, in fact, simply a statue featured in the video—whether or not Simmons was aware of that fact, or if she and her friend were both fooled by an optical illusion.