The Hat Man

About 12 years ago, I had an encounter with an apparition that left me terrified.  More terrified than I had ever been before- and I've had my share of creepy encounters as a paranormal investigator.  It was a Saturday night, and I had been out on the Gettysburg Battlefield doing an investigation.  That night, I opted to stay at my parents' house rather than go home to my place.  I went to bed in my old room and had no issue falling asleep.  Some time late in the night, I suddenly woke from a sound sleep. I laid in bed for a moment listening, wondering if there was a noise that could have interrupted my sleep.  It was dark in the room.  There were no curtains on the window and no moon, or at least not a large enough moon to create enough light.  I happened to glance down at the foot of my bed, and there I saw a dark figure standing at the end of the bed.

The most notable feature was the wide brimmed hat that it wore.  It seemed to be wearing a long trench coat like garment or some type of long sleeved large collared jacket.  The bed was a 4 poster bed and the posts were painted an off white.  I distinctly remember seeing the man's hand curled around the post as if holding on to it.  The moment I saw the figure I was overcome with fear and panic.  I'm not talking about that "oh crap there's a ghost at the foot of my bed" fear, I'm talking about fear that comes from knowing that what's there isn't good.  I squeezed my eyes shut and began reciting The Lord's Prayer over and over until the sun started to peek over the horizon.  I finally managed to get up and started getting ready for work.  I couldn't find my glasses.  I'm a creature of habit, sometimes with a few slight OCD tendencies, so believe me when I say that I place my glasses in the exact same spot every night when I go to bed. Even now, 12 years later, I place them in the same spot- directly in front of my alarm clock. Yet that morning they were nowhere to be found.  Not under the bed, not on the floor, not anywhere near the clock.  I ended up being 15 minutes late for work and having to leave without my glasses (which I need to drive).

Luckily for me, my supervisor at the time was a fellow ghost enthusiast and didn't care about me being late because it came with a story.  I went through what happened and then got to work.  A few moments later, I heard my boss call out from the back room, " I thought you couldn't find your glasses."  "I didn't find them," I said.  "But they're sitting on top of your clothes in the bag!" I went to look and sure enough, my glasses were sitting right on top of my clothes. I threw my clothes in the bag myself and I know that there was no way that my glasses were in there, let alone set neatly on top of the pile.

It was several years later that I came across some information regarding what was called "the hat man".  I was shocked as I read about someone else's encounter with the very same entity I had seen.  I was intrigued and researched further and found hundreds of people around the globe have had eerily similar interactions with this "hat man".

The following are the most described details of a hat man encounter:

• Humanoid figure wearing a wide brimmed or "gaucho" type hat
• Appears to be wearing a trench coat or similar long sleeved collared jacket
• Commonly appears in bedrooms, usually at the foot of the bed
• Some claim to see red eyes while other see no eyes at all
• Witnesses describe an overwhelming fear, sometimes paralyzing
• Appears 2-dimensional
• Some people see it only once while other have repeated encounters with it 
• His visit usually comes after visits from shadow people

As with shadow people in general, it's hard to say what the Hat Man is, what he wants or what his agenda is.  With the majority of people having a sense of fear or dread, it doesn't seem as though it is something "good" or something with "good intentions".  Some people feel that he comes to monitor things.  There have even been some who believe that he monitors people with psychic abilities or those who investigate the paranormal.  Whatever his intents, I certainly hope he never makes another appearance in my room again.

Have you had an encounter with the Hat Man or with another form of shadow person? I'd like to know about it.  Email your story to investigations@gettysburgghosts.net