By Savious Madanhire
In a bizarre turn of events, the mystery behind the “haunted” houses of Woodlands, Gweru which were thought to be haunted by ghosts, has turned out to be the handiwork of a trio group of naughty children.
For several months, residents of the usually quiet suburb have been terrorized by unexplained occurrences of mysterious stone-throwing “ghosts” throughout the night.
When The Sun news crew visited the area, noticed several window panes, and asbestos damaged from the attack.
Many residents believed the houses were indeed haunted by malevolent evil spirits, out to harm them.
Several traditional and faith healers were engaged by residents to cleanse their homes from stone-throwing evil spirits but to no avail.
A resident, who is a former police officer, decided to take the matter into his own hands and started to investigate the matter.
One day in the middle of the night, he caught one of the culprits in action and managed to identify him although he ran away.
Mai Moto the first resident to experience the incident said her house was attacked for three days in a row, every week, for months.
“On the first day, we heard sounds of stones being thrown on the roof from 2100hrs in the evening to 0300hours in the mourning hence making us think it was the work of evil spirits.”
“The second day the same incident occurred at around 1800 hours and stopped, lastly it occurred in the afternoon and my daughter was missed by a stone while taking a bath,” she said.
A trio group of children aged between 6 and 10, confessed to being behind the “hauntings” armed with nothing but stones, some sticks and a lot of imagination that had managed to convince the entire neighborhood that the houses were possessed.
“We didn’t mean to scare anyone, it was just a fun game for us,’’ said one of the children who can not be named.
The community is now relieved that the “hauntings” were not supernatural and expressed concern about the children’s behavior and the potential consequences of their actions.
“This is not just a fun game, it’s a reflection of the lack of guidance and supervision our children are receiving,” said a resident.
Meanwhile, some residents have doubts about the events to be of a child’s mind considering the hours in which the sounds are heard hence there is indeed a witchcraft hand in this matter.
