An exorcism (artist's rendering).
An exorcism (artist’s rendering). Spinello Aretino/Public Domain

As we’re all learning these days, if you want to help enact political change, it pays to agitate on a local level. Go meet up with your representatives and make them aware of your policy priorities! Arrange a meetup with your friends and send postcards to your Congressperson! Or, go a little further: call your mayor and request that he set up an exorcism to banish that new, pesky ghost from the town hall!

Such are the demands currently faced by Leandro Martín—the mayor of Vegas del Genil, a small town outside of Granada, Spain—after news leaked last week of a council member’s spooky after-hours experience, The Local reports. The council member, who wishes to remain anonymous, first raised the alarm after he worked late one night in the town hall. “I heard a strange rustling sound in the hallway, like someone was dragging files across the floor,” the council member recounted to Ideal.

Fearing a burglar, he crept into the hallway and took a cell phone picture of what initially seemed to be an empty hallway. Examining the photo in his office, the council member “saw what appeared to be a ghostly apparition of a child,” The Local reports. He quickly locked himself in the room “in a state of panic” and WhatsApped the photo to his fellow council members, one of whom came to the office to escort him home.

The mayor was quick to dismiss these concerns—but the true believers aren’t letting up. Council members insist that the hallway is colder than normal, even though a mechanic checked the heating and found everything working fine.

One brought in a Reiki practitioner, who reported feeling “a presence,” The Local says. Citizens are also calling the mayor left and right, demanding an exorcism or, at the very least, an investigation.

Despite this constituent pressure, “earthly matters” remain the town’s top concern, the mayor told El Mundo.

Every day, we track down a fleeting wonder—something amazing that’s only happening right now. Have a tip for us? Tell us about it! Send your temporary miracles to cara@atlasobscura.com.