Did Ghost Trip Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Restaurant’s Indoor Motion Sensor?

Did a ghost trigger the indoor motion detectors at the Library Restaurant in Portsmouth?

The ghosts believed to inhabit the basement of the building are the leading suspects to have caused the indoor motion detector to be tripped for the first time early Tuesday morning, according to the restaurant. Lights from a passing car were ruled out.

"It is not lights from the car - because you can see how others are picked up and there is no horizontal wind blowing. So what can this be! Make of it what you will but this has never happened before! Spooky coincidence for the time of year," the restaurant wrote on its Facebook page.

Speculation About the Cause

A commenter on the post offered their observations about the video.

One noted a wisp of smoke at about :17 seconds, seen on the video outside a window. The restaurant responded that the smoke appeared at the same time the motion detector was triggered.

"There is no motion inside AT ALL on the cameras and there is NO WAY the sensor has line of sight to the outside (its on the other side of the room, behind a wall and cannot possibly see anything outside the window."

Another said just before the wisp appears, there appears to be a face, possibly female, in the frame at :16. A regular at the restaurant said there is a female ghost in the ladies room.

One commenter offered a more grounded explanation: that the building settling could have caused a puff of dust.

The business first opened in 1833 as The Rockingham Hotel, and became a restaurant in 1889.

The Rockingham was purchased by a development corporation in 1973 for restoration as condominiums. It re-opened in 1975, which was when the Library theme was introduced.

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