Ghost in the Backseat

[GT/CS]

This has been floating around for a few months. It's obviously not a ghost but what the heck is it?

http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/news/a41455/ghost-in-selfie-seat-belt/

The comparison photo is borrowed from Metabunk.

 

[SOdhner]

It's a kid, sitting in the back seat. Note that he's in both pictures, you can see a little bit of his shoulder in the one. So she takes a picture, then he leans over and she takes another.

Then someone realizes that the way her hair obscures his face looks mildly creepy, so they make up a story about a ghost.

SOLVED!

 

[GT/CS]

It probably is a kid but I'm not sure. If you cover its face the hair area looks like the handles from a shopping bag.

 

[SOdhner]

It probably is a kid but I'm not sure. If you cover its face the hair area looks like the handles from a shopping bag.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but I think it being a kid is the simpler explanation. I see a head and shoulders, and it seems like about the right height for those things.

 

[Giordano]

This brings new meaning to the concept of lame! I have far more mysterious "ghosts" in my own pictures.

 

[fagin]

Silly girl shouldn't be taking selfies while driving or she'll be a ghost soon.

 

[William Parcher]

Below are some links for more information.

The mother was a paranormal and ghost fanatic long before this alleged photo incident. She seems to have erred on a boy dying at this location a year prior. People at Metabunk have researched it.

This woman is a real doozy. She says that she had already gotten 13 tickets from police for her daughter not wearing a seatbelt. Those are expensive and will ruin your driving record and jack up your insurance fees. But then there's the girl riding without a seatbelt again. Apparently mom hasn't reached the point where she says, "this car isn't moving until you buckle up".

I think she's crazy and can't be trusted to be honest about something that she is biased about. Her enthusiasm of the paranormal might give her incentive to lie and maybe even stage a hoax.

https://www.metabunk.org/explaining-the-ghost-boy-in-the-back-seat-photo-with-occams-razor.t8156

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...g-seat-car-thinks-appeared-daughter-safe.html

 

[Darat]

I can see how people could construct a face but that to me is clear pareidolia. If you isolate the parts of the images that are meant to be the boy you'll see they aren't in fact details of a face.

 

[SOdhner]

I can see how people could construct a face but that to me is clear pareidolia. If you isolate the parts of the images that are meant to be the boy you'll see they aren't in fact details of a face.

I'm going to have to totally disagree with you on that one. We're talking about the kid in the seat behind her, right? With the clear and recognizable hairline, lips, chin, etc.?

 

[William Parcher]

I have some doubts that it's a person. The head seems to be the wrong size and shape. The mouth looks wrong. But it could be a kid back there photobombing. The mom might very well remember having a kid on board and is just being an opportunistic hoaxer. The Bigfooters certainly do it, and I'd imagine Ghosters do too.

Could be pareidolia. We are quick to see faces in almost anything because our brains are wired to do that.

But is it some thing back there on the seat? The duration between the photos is less than one second. Why would it move? It also seems to be positioned higher than some object sitting on the seat. Those are some doubts about it being an object.

PhotoShop altered is another possibility.

I don't trust anything said by the mother.

 

[William Parcher]

chin

People are saying that's a finger that the kid is holding up. Many say they see two fingers like a "V" sign. Mom thinks the ghost boy is gesturing to remind of safety and wearing the seatbelt. That's weird logic though. The ghost did a really crappy job of warning and it didn't even work as the girl never saw it. He really should have sat right in her lap and pointed at the belt.

 

[SOdhner]

I have some doubts that it's a person. The head seems to be the wrong size and shape. The mouth looks wrong. But it could be a kid back there photobombing.

I mean, I guess it doesn't really matter. And as you say, pareidolia is a powerful force. I'll just put this out there, though, to say why I think it's a kid:

1. A kid is a thing likely to be in the back seat, and can lean to the side in a way that would make them visible in the picture. So at the very least it's possible.

2. Skin tone looks right, assuming there's a tinted window in the back. That certainly appears to be the case.

3. Based on my experience of having lots of kids in my back seat of varying ages, the height of the head looks fine.

4. Assuming it's a kid's head, we would expect to see hair on top and a mouth and chin on the bottom. Obviously the eyes and nose are obscured. There do seem to be those things, and the lips appear to be slightly redder than the surrounding skin as you would expect (again, account for the tinted light from the window).

5. Look just under the head, it looks like the fabric of the shirt has a bump where the collar would be. So, you know, could be a collar.

6. Look at the shoulder. Now look at the other picture, without the kid. Note that you can still see a bit of the green shirt. Now look at the angle, it's much more level. This is consistent with the kid leaning to the side in the one picture but sitting up straight in the other.

So that's my deal. But okay, I do totally concede that I don't know for sure and it could always be photoshop or some strange thing that happens to look like a kid from the right angle. I just think that "it's a kid" is the most plausible answer.

 

[SOdhner]

People are saying that's a finger that the kid is holding up. Many say they see two fingers like a "V" sign.

Huh. Yeah, that's a good point. There's a bit of shadow that would be better explained by a finger.

Mom thinks the ghost boy is gesturing to remind of safety and wearing the seatbelt. That's weird logic though. The ghost did a really crappy job of warning and it didn't even work as the girl never saw it. He really should have sat right in her lap and pointed at the belt.

It's like those cryptic warnings something keeps writing on my walls in blood. Like, I'm sorry but BEWARE doesn't really help me. Could you just write THERE'S A GAS LEAK, OPEN THE WINDOWS AND CALL A PROFESSIONAL or something?

 

[William Parcher]

I think it's a kid

I can't say that you are wrong. But check this out.

The driver of the car says that you are definitely wrong because there was nobody in the backseat. We might expect that she would also question her daughter, "hey, did we have anybody in the backseat last month on the day we went to your beauty pageant?" Who knows if she asked or what the answer was. Mom also has the opportunity to doubt herself and try to recognize which kid in her world that might be, and then go to them to ask, "were you riding with us that day?"

 

[SOdhner]

The driver of the car says that you are definitely wrong because there was nobody in the backseat. We might expect that she would also question her daughter, "hey, did we have anybody in the backseat last month on the day we went to your beauty pageant?" Who knows if she asked or what the answer was. Mom also has the opportunity to doubt herself and try to recognize which kid in her world that might be, and then go to them to ask, "were you riding with us that day?"

Oh, yeah, absolutely. I am totally saying the story is garbage and assuming it's being reported accurately the mom is just flat out lying.

I mean I could be charitable and try to come up with an explanation (the picture is from a different day than she thinks and she wasn't the one driving on the day in question which is why she doesn't remember having the kid in the car, etc.) but I'm not going to do that because I actually just think that lying is the most likely explanation.

 

[baron]

I once took a photo of my dog in the garden and in the top right corner, half hidden behind a particularly striking California lilac, was the face of my father. He was alive at the time.

 

[SOdhner]

I once took a photo of my dog in the garden and in the top right corner, half hidden behind a particularly striking California lilac, was the face of my father. He was alive at the time.

Was he hiding in the garden?

 

[TheSapient]

Am I the only one who sees two ghosts? Yes, there is the boy in the back seat. But what about the girl with the red hair and sunglasses in the front?

 

[Giordano]

Oh, yeah, absolutely. I am totally saying the story is garbage and assuming it's being reported accurately the mom is just flat out lying.

I mean I could be charitable and try to come up with an explanation (the picture is from a different day than she thinks and she wasn't the one driving on the day in question which is why she doesn't remember having the kid in the car, etc.) but I'm not going to do that because I actually just think that lying is the most likely explanation.

You posted precisely my thoughts!

But certainly the image could be that of anything- we are programmed to see faces in random clusters of pixels. Ultimately there are many reasons to believe it is not a ghost- the first of which: there have never been a documented identification of a ghost whereas there are huge numbers of natural explanations for what it is likely to be. The first is that the woman made it up. The second, third, and fourth is that she misremembered the day or misremembered if she had a kid with her on that day or it is a big bag in the back seat.

 

[William Parcher]

If it is a kid then that kid exists and has the opportunity to see the news article. "She lied. That's me. She lied because she loves ghosts. Next time I'm in that car I'm going to poop on the floor. Then she'll have another ghost lie to tell".