Ghost Story

Agnes is M.A.D.

Over the years, all of us have either heard or told ghost stories around the campfire or at parties, but there's a local legend right here in the Lehigh Valley about a REAL ghost story at one of the local sports bars in Emmaus that has survived the test of time and has enough credible witnesses to make it a worthy story to share.

Volpe's Sports Bar at 501 Broad Street, Emmaus has a ghost by the name of Agnes living and lurking in the basement of the establishment. Shortly after Volpe's opened in 2008, the staff started experiencing a strange phenomenon down in the bowels of the building, where they kept supplies for the bar/restaurant.

At first, things seemed somewhat normal. Folks would go down for napkins or cups and feel a cold chill. It's a basement after all - it's supposed to be cold, right? But sometimes, even in very pleasant or moderate conditions, the basement temperature would suddenly and drastically change from warm-to-cold to almost "see your breath" frigid in a matter of seconds.

At times, the wait staff or bartenders would hear odd sounds of things moving around in the shadows. Team member expressed some of their basement experiences to the others:

• Chelsea said a bunch of things started flying off the shelves onto the floor.

• Beth heard someone or something whispering her name.

• Bobby would feel the hair on his arms and legs stand on end and then the room would go ice cold.

• Several of the staff swore they saw shadows to the point where they ran up the stairs in panic.

It got to a point where everyone at the bar had a team meeting to discuss how to handle this phenomenon. While they all had similar bizarre experiences, they agreed that whatever spirit or manifestation they saw or felt didn't seem harmful, just supernatural. To alleviate their fears, Jonathan and Bobby decided to name the presence Marie Agnes Dupree with the initials M.A.D and to call her simply "Agnes". They also resigned themselves to simply be nice to Agnes rather than frightful.

As time went on, everyone got used to the weirdness of the basement and agreed to co-exist with Agnes. It was routine for the staff to go down to the basement after closing to count the money, have a beer and just chat.

At some point, Bobby set up a roulette wheel as a fun activity for them. The supernatural activities continued while spinning the roulette wheel. Under normal circumstances, a roulette wheel can land on one of 38 possible positions. Under Agnes' spell, RED 19 would come up SEVEN OUT OF TEN spins. The team thought Bobby was playing a trick on them and would call out "Magic Bobby, Magic Bobby" or that the wheel was rigged. It wasn't.

Eventually, it happened to fall on RED 19 too often to be anything but paranormal activity and felt so strange that they stopped playing and everyone would leave feeling a bit freaked out. And the habit of going down to the basement to hang out seemed a little too unnatural.

The news of Agnes spread among the customers and once in a while, one of the regulars would bug Bobby to go down to the basement and take a spin at the wheel. On those occasions, the guest would be given one chance at the wheel and in at least three separate occasions, it stopped at RED 19.

If I'm doing my math correctly, the odds of hitting ONE of 38 possible slots on a roulette wheel is 2.63% out of 100%. And yet, under Agnes' roof, the odds seemed much better.

In the words of Ray Parker Jr., in the 1984 film, Ghostbusters, "Who you gonna call?".

Ghostbusters - Who You Gonna Call?

You're going to have your believers and you're going to have your skeptics. You're going to have folks that will tell you the roulette wheel was busted, broken or rigged. But to put a delicious spin on this story, here's something that may change your mind.

Bobby and Jonathan were at the Sands Casino (Before it was renamed Wind Creek) one night and as a lark, decided to put $100.00 down on a roulette wheel there. Watching it spin and spin, it landed on RED NINETEEN and netted them a $3,500 payout. Somewhere, back in Emmaus, Agnes was grinning.

No matter what you believe, Volpe's is a great place to hang out, have a cheesesteak and a beer with friends and family and say hello to Agnes! Not sure if they serve ghost pepper cheese, but we've had the Swiss and American on our cheesesteak and everything was delicious. They also make a portabella Swiss Burger that's a fan favorite. Say hello to Fran and team and have a great time.