A man who worked at the house featured in The Conjuring movie has alleged he was fired after “a ghost” accused him on theft.
Brian Dansereau told Fox59 that he was fired from the Burrillville, Rhode Island, farmhouse, which is also known as the Old Arnold Estate, after his boss said the home’s former 19th-century owner told her that Dansereau had been stealing money.
He explained the home’s current owner Jacqueline Nuñez told him she had encountered the spirit of John Arnold—who owned the home with his wife Abigail in the 1800s—who told her Dansereau had stolen about $3,000 from the house, which is currently open to visitors.
Dansereau has denied theft.
“She said, ‘John Arnold told me you’ve been stealing money out of the cash box for the past two months,’” Dansereau told Fox 59. “I literally stopped and I had to correct her like, ‘John Arnold, one of the original owners?’”
He also showed the channel purported text messages of the conversation.
Nuñez, a self-described medium, confirmed she had fired Dansereau and that spirits of “the most famous haunted and active locations in the world” told her he had been stealing, according to Fox59.
She added that Arnold also informed her of “other matters that are untoward from previous staff and even mischievous guests.”
“It does not matter whether you believe in the paranormal or not,” Nuñez said in a statement. “I, and every person, is entitled to experiences that bring understanding and meaning to our lives, including being informed or warned about wicked actors and actions. As far as Brian goes, my experience with him devolved quickly, culminating in his at-will employment termination.”
The Conjuring film is based on a book by Andrea Perron about the paranormal activity she experienced living on the Arnold Estate, which her family owned in the 1970s. However, the original movie did not shoot at the house.
Perron lived at the house, which dates back to 1836 and stands on an 8.5-acre lot, with her parents and four siblings. She previously said she noticed bizarre occurrences—including early-morning bed shakings, odors of rotting flesh and a broom moving by itself from place to place—after moving in.
The family also found their dog dead in the yard after it refused to go inside, she said.
“It started the first day we moved into the house,” Perron said of the paranormal experiences during a 2013 interview. “We saw a man standing in the dining room who seemed fixated on dear old Mr. Kenyon, who sold the property to my parents. I walked passed him and said, ‘Good morning,’ and he didn’t respond.”
She added that the home’s seller had not disclosed its history of murder, suicide and rape. Meanwhile, a former listing for the house noted that the property is rumored to be haunted by the ghost of Bathsheba Sherman, who lived there in the 1800s.
Perron said Bathsheba was a spirit that was unleashed during a “seance gone horribly wrong.”
Dansereau recalled his own paranormal experiences while working at the house, such as hearing voices, footsteps and even his own voice talking back to him in the basement.
“One of the weirdest things was being in the basement by myself in the storeroom and literally hearing me call me from the other side of the basement,” he said.
He also claimed that he once saw a closed door open for him as he walked toward it with an armful of boxes.
Despite his alleged encounters with the paranormal, Dansereau said he doubts that the ghost of John Arnold ever told Nuñez he was a thief.
“For a spirit to go after a staff member in that manner, I’ve never heard of such a thing at any haunted venue let alone the ‘Conjuring’ house,” he said.
Dansereau has now filed a complaint seeking unpaid wages with the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training.
In the complaint, he alleges that Nuñez owes him $9,000 for uncompensated work.
Nuñez has denied owing Dansereau any money, and claims her books show discrepancies between merchandise orders and cash sales, backing up the allegation of theft.
She accused Dansereau of “counting the stolen money as part of his compensation,” adding that she plans to file a complaint with state officials and Burrillville against him.
Dansereau told Fox59 his dispute with Nuñez has been “horrible” and that the stress of it is causing him anxiety and keeping him up at night.
“This was going to be my sunset job,” he said. “In all my career, I’ve never been accused of stealing.”
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