The Point Lookout Lighthouse

Point Lookout Lighthouse

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The Bad Luck Brick

 

Several years ago, Laura and I volunteered at the Point Lookout Lighthouse Open House. It was a busy day, and we answered many questions and thoroughly enjoyed our day. As we were approaching closing time, we noticed a couple hanging around and they seemed a bit nervous. We weren’t sure what to make of them but as people were clearing out, the couple got the attention of one of the park staff and confessed to stealing a brick from the basement at a previous open house event. In an effort to repent, the wife in particular wanted to return the brick- she was beside herself and very fidgety, anxious to get the brick back to its proper place. The distraught woman insisted that she had to return the brick herself, returning it to its proper place and that in the past 2 years since she took the memento, many bad things had happened to her, but she wouldn’t elaborate with any specifics. Normally, the basement is off-limits, however, the park made an exception in this most unusual case. Laura and I requested to watch the event unfold, and we followed everyone downstairs. The woman returned the brick on the north side basement, south side wall just below the dining room (in the “second” basement directly across from the cellar door). We were standing around after the woman had replaced the brick in its original location, and we were amazed that we could no longer tell which brick had been replaced. We were joking among ourselves, trying to determine which brick was loose, but to no avail- when we noticed that the couple had vanished without a word. Laura and I filed this incident under unusual in our collective conscience and chalked it up to superstition, not knowing what else to think of the bizarre event. In February of 2005, Laura was talking to her brother-in-law about the lighthouse. His niece, Dawn, asked if Laura had any artifacts from the lighthouse, like a brick. Those details conjured up the incident from a few years ago, and Laura related the brick story to Dawn. In a twist worthy of Six Degrees of Separation, Dawn told Laura that her next-door neighbors were the couple who had pilfered the brick! Dawn went on to say that the husband said that he had “major bad luck” for two years until he returned the brick. He went on to say that after he stole the brick, his wife had a nervous breakdown and began speaking in tongues. Our guess is that returning the brick didn’t change their luck very much, as the wife divorced the husband! Besides being plain wrong, destructive and illegal, the moral of the story is be careful what you walk away with- you may be getting more than you bargained for!
 
Location North Side Basement
Date Written February 2005
Written by Robert Hall
Comments We don’t think the brick had anything to do with the couple’s bad luck…but then again, who can say for sure……