Is one of Manteca’s most popular sports-related hangouts haunted?

The community’s de facto paranormal hunters are gearing up to find that out for sure.

Last year Mountain Mikes Pizza owner Jeff Liotard tipped off the California Ghost Chasers that he had some very peculiar experiences late at night inside of the local haunt – seeing the aberration of a man when he went in to check some things in his office.

Thinking that it was the ghost of the previous owner Garth Adams, Liotard asked the local group to come in and investigate the matter further, and through EVP – electronic voice phenomenon – they were able to pick up two recordings of the name “David.” It didn’t ring a bell with Liotard and attempts at reaching out to the community for any information that may have shed light on the matter fell flat.

Now the group is trying to set-up a time with Liotard to go back and try to record more contact to determine what it is that might be trying to reach out.

“That’s the thing that I enjoy the most about this is the evidence that we get to collect. You walk in to something thinking that it’s not haunted, and once in a while there’s something there,” said group founder Ed Krietemeyer. “That’s really what makes doing this worthwhile.”

He started attending meetings of local groups who would go out to sites. He began making himself familiar with the terminology and the practices of those who spend their spare time searching for contact with something from another realm.

But with his mathematical and scientific background, the Stockton-based engineer wasn’t content with just hoping to come across something. He had to know why things were the way they were. He decided to form his own group dedicated to obtaining as much information about the subjects they sought as possible.

“I wanted to know the how and why of the things that people were going out and trying to look for,” Krietemeyer said. “I wanted to know how these aberrations can speak, how they have a voice, how they can move, how they can touch you. These are all things that I had in mind when I set out to start my own group.”

And California Ghost Chasers was born.

By working with friends that are electronic hobbyists, Krietemeyer actually came up with some of his own equipment to detect certain paranormal phenomena and help chronicle instances that he can then go back, take a closer look at, and study further.

It wasn’t long before the website he set up actually started getting hits from people that had experiences that they wanted investigated. He began expanding the number of people involved in the group – which began with only eight members – through meet-and-greets in local communities. That increased the likelihood of coming across ghost gold.

It was through one of those meet-and-greets that Krietemeyer met Liotard.

“We’re looking forward to going back and maybe finding out what his last name is, maybe how he died or what he has to do with Mountain Mike’s,” he said. “It was strange because it was a name that nobody expected and one that nobody can place, so hopefully we can learn somebody about this David.”