On most days, Port Washington residents Paul and Kris Baker can be found working hard in the attics and basements of local residences and businesses running their busy Port Washington and Glenwood Landing based business, Baker Air Heating & Air Conditioning. What most locals do not know, is that their passion for working in basements and attics extends far beyond Baker Air. In addition to being HVAC experts, the duo are a well-known father/son team with a passion for all things paranormal as skilled “Ghosthunters.”
For more than a decade, the team has been invited to dozens of B&B’s, restaurants, landmark buildings and private homes throughout the country whose owners claim to be experiencing unexplained phenomena in their halls, basements and attics. Shedding their Baker Air uniforms, they don new hats and get to work on another passion, RiseLI (Research and Investigations of Spectral Entities Long Island), founded by the Bakers. They pack up their state-of-the-art paranormal surveillance equipment and leap into action, hoping to capture other worldly images and sounds on video and audio, or logically prove no real activity at all. Their work has proven fascinating.
paranormal realm.
Most recently, they received a request for a paranormal investigation from a North Shore homeowner living in a large home, built in the early 1800s. The home had historically been occupied by a prominent Long Island family of Grist Mill fame with strong ties to the whaling industry. It was at this visit, in mid-December, that RiseLI confirmed what generations of the family had always suspected. The home is spiritually active. During the investigation, Rise LI’s recording equipment was able to record multiple entities, including someone named “Alex” who claimed to have died there in the late 1800s. Audio also caught the voice of a woman said to have been the nanny of the original homeowners.
Through another piece of equipment called a Ghost Box, the team captured audio of a voice that said Paul was “Below the Property,” when asked “where in the house is Paul Baker?” At the time, Paul was setting up equipment in the home’s basement. On the team’s Ovilus Meter, another piece of equipment used in their investigations, Paul’s name was clearly picked up multiple times.
“We can tell you a dozen more stories like this one, where phenomena simply cannot be scientifically explained, proving to us that the paranormal does exist,” Paul Baker said, who along with Kris has investigated at least 40 spiritually active venues in Long Island, Cape May, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
The team says that although they have found solid evidence of paranormal activity many times, the first order of business for the team’s investigations is to check for logical explanations for what is claimed to be spiritual activity.
“We are far from famous, but we are good at what we do, because we truly love having the opportunity to conduct these investigations,” the Bakers said.
Both the Baker’s are Schreiber graduates. Kris is a 1997 Schreiber High School graduate and his father, Paul, a 1968 graduate. The late Willard Baker attended Port High School (current site of the Landmark on Main Street). Kris’s two children attend elementary school in Port Washington (fourth generation Baker).
If you suspect paranormal activity in your home or business, contact RISE, LI for paranormal pest control. No fee charged. Paranormal@bakerair.com.
