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by Blair Anthony Robertson, Sacramento Bee
Published 2:15 am PST Monday, October 31, 2005
But it's the work he does by night that truly challenges him. He's a ghost hunter.
Bender, 34, is co-founder of a nonprofit Sacramento group that will come to your home,
office or any other spooky place and try to determine whether it's haunted.
The Sacramento-based American Paranormal Investigations is particularly busy come
Halloween, when people begin to think about not only costumes and candy but ghosts
and goblins. Some of the client calls turn out to be pranks, but many people are deathly
concerned about things that go bump in the night.
Bender and several devoted volunteers, some with the apparent ability to sense the
presence of spirits, have conducted about 30 investigations over the past 2 1/2 years.
Asked if Sacramento is a particularly hospitable place for ghosts, Bender smiles and says,
"There is quite a history here."
Bender's personal history led him to the world of ghosts years ago, growing up in
Helena, Mont. He is one-quarter American Indian and says his late uncle was a medicine
man who taught him traditional blessings and ceremonies.
"It was very common just talking about spirits as everyday things in my family," Bender
said.
In the late 1990s, as his interest in ghosts grew, Bender began to assemble a basic ghost
hunting kit, beginning with a camcorder, a thermometer and a flashlight.
At 6-foot-4 and solidly built, Bender wasn't necessarily afraid of seeking out haunted
houses. But he grew ever more curious about what he sensed but could not see.
"I just wanted to find out what was out there," he said. "It was disappointing at first.
There was a lot of trial and error."
In 2001, Bender moved to the Sacramento area for work. After hours, he sought out
others who shared his passion for the paranormal.
He eventually started his own group, which quickly grew in membership. American
Paranormal Investigations, or API, acquired more sophisticated equipment, including a
night vision camcorder, laser thermal reader and an electromagnetic field meter.
Last year, API filled out the paperwork for nonprofit status. It does not charge for
investigations, relying mostly on grants and donations.
Looking for ghosts usually means long hours, often working through the night.
Afterward, someone has to watch hour after hour of deadly dull video footage, often
simply of a chair or a bed.
They must be careful not to look away, lest they miss a brief appearance of a light or
shadow that could be a ghost. "The best way to describe it is a ball of energy."
Several of the investigations are documented at www.ap-investigations.com, the group's
Web site.
Apart from the sensational - and controversial - investigations, API says its goal is to do
more than find ghosts and goblins.
"I'm not out to prove anything anymore," Bender said. "I just want to present
information. People just want to know everything is OK. Some people are perfectly fine
with having ghosts around."