By Tim Binnall
Authorities in a Florida city are asking aspiring ghost hunters to stop breaking into a historic hotel that, they say, is not actually haunted. According to a local media report, the weird request was issued by police in the city of Sebring, which is home to a once-lavish resort hotel known as the Kenilworth Lodge. Built in 1916, the giant 65,000-square-foot building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and once served as something of a centerpiece in the community.
The hotel was shuttered in 2006 and has been abandoned ever since, leading to the site becoming a popular destination for urban explorers and people under the impression that the building is haunted. Over the years, countless would-be ghost hunters have broken into the Kenilworth Lodge in search of spirits or simply adventure and authorities have apparently had enough of the illegal visits. Authorities in Sebring say that, so far this summer, the property’s owners have called them at least seven times to report trespassers in the building.
Making matters all the more maddening to police is that they contend that the tales of ghosts residing in the building appear to be largely an urban legend fueled by the internet. “I don’t know it to be haunted,” Curtis Hart of the Sebring Police Department told a local media outlet, “never heard anything about it being haunted, so I don’t know what the draw is there.” As such, the department hopes that their proverbial ‘ghost busting’ might squelch those rumors and keep them from having to arrest anyone breaking into the building or, worse, having to rescue someone who gets injured while on a misadventure as recently happened under similar circumstances during an unauthorized ghost hunt in Buffalo, New York.