A husband and wife have revealed footage of a 'haunted' doll moving on its own in the dead of night - with people claiming its the 'ghost of a child playing with it'. Lee and Linzi Steer collect spooky dolls but claim this one is a 'mystery' that was sent to them with no note explaining its background - leaving the duo uncertain what could be lurking in its history.
The couple were stunned to return to their haunted objects museum in Rotherham last Friday to find the donated Victorian doll had inexplicably moved positions on its shelf. Lee, 36, claims the 'baffling' CCTV footage shows the toy slowly lean forward in a controlled motion before its head tilts slightly - even suggesting claiming he has never seen anything like it in 20 years as a real-life ghost hunter.
When the duo shared the footage on the doll 'moving like a human' on social media, other paranormal fans claimed it looks like a 'child is hugging it'. Linzi, from Rotherham, said: "This particular doll didn't come to us as haunted. People sent it but didn't particularly tell us what (had happened with her).
"Usually they'll leave us notes but with this doll, it was nothing. It was a mystery. We went in on Friday and we both noticed that doll propped forward. I said 'let's just check CCTV'. No one ever goes in - it's just me, Lee and Lee's mum that have keys. We had to go right back to Tuesday (on the cameras) then Lee went 'oh my god'.
"The doll moves forward in three stages then its head moves. It turns its head - it's like the joints are physically moving like a human. It was propped like that. If it was a natural fall it'd have gone on the floor, but it didn't. The way she was positioned defies gravity.
"That doll is actually heavy and it was leant at an angle. This footage is the first time we've caught something moving on camera at the museum - it baffles me. I'm actually sceptical but I can't explain it."
Lee and Linzi, 52, who run Project Reveal - Ghosts of Britain, put the footage online for their followers and claim the majority thought it looked like a ghost child was playing with the doll. Linzi said: "There were a lot of people saying the footage looks real. The main thing people talk about is the actual joints moving.
"We put it online and 99 percent of them said it looked like a spirit child is wanting to hug the doll. A lot of people who come to our museum do pick up on children there. It's very weird.
"If there is something attached to the doll, we want to work with it. We've got 11 rooms of different things. (The property) used to be three miners' houses but now its our museum, a café and a little shop.
"We know it's been a lot of things in its time but recorded details is that there were two children badly neglected in there. There is documentation of another child that was burnt and scolded to death."
uple open their museum up to private parties and paranormal investigators - with their website claiming they have 'five of the top 10 most haunted items to ever exist' on display there.
Linzi said: "We own a haunted objects museum and every weekend there's someone in investigating there. This museum has haunted items from all over the world that people send us and the house itself is very haunted. We go down there after a team's been in to make sure the house is okay.
"We've got a lot of dolls and people send them to us. They might think there's something strange about them, some think they're haunted. We must have more than 200 dolls. These particular ones on the shelf are very old. We've got one that's dated from the 1800s.
"We've even got an old morgue table downstairs." Lee said: "I've been doing this for over 20 years and I've never seen anything like that. It definitely shocked me."
