Medium visits Federal Hill book shop and identifies ghostly inhabitant
Medium Rob Gutro relaxes among the stacks at The Book Escape, possibly home to a helpful ghost.
Store owner Andrew Stonebarger said he experienced something very strange in the basement of the store.
“I heard a noise in one of the rooms,” he said. “The microwave had turned itself on.”
Stonebarger also described another experience:
“When you’re looking for a special book and you’re going through the shelves, once in a while the book you were looking for will just fall from the shelves,” he said. “It has happened to me once or twice, but it’s also happened to other employees.”
Gutro, an author and medium from Bowie, investigated The Book Escape with members of Inspired Ghost Tracking, a Jessup group that, as indicated by the name, tracks ghosts.
“I was able to determine the identity of the person who still lingered there,” said Gutro. “He had something do do with books per se, but I don’t know if I should give it away.”
Gutro’s latest book, Lessons Learned from Talking to the Dead, reveals the true identity of the shade.
At a book signing at The Book Escape last weekend, Gutro treated visitors to the full story of the bookstore’s ghost, as well as an audio recording of the ghost telling him and the ghost trackers to “go away.”
His connections with the spirit world aside, Gutro leads a normal life.
Gutro said that he had his first encounter at 14.
“I saw my grandfather appear in front of me, six months after he died,” he said. “That’s when I knew something was going on.”
Things happened sporadically from then. Gutro’s six-month-old weimaraner puppy died tragically in front of his eyes. After that, “he started making appearances,” Gutro said.
Things really picked up when he met his partner, according to Gutro.
“I fell in love,” he said. “It made me more receptive to messages.”
While he was writing his first book, Ghosts and Spirits: Insights from a Medium, Gutro experienced the death of his father.
But he wasn’t really gone.
At the funeral, Gutro’s grieving mother was sobbing uncontrollably. She quickly reduced her tissues to wet and useless shreds.
Gutro said that his father told him, three times, “Tell her to use my handkerchief.” In their 53 years of marriage, Gutro’s mother had always refused to touch his father’s handkerchiefs, even to wash them. When Gutro finally relayed his father’s message, his mother was taken aback.
“For the first time in 53 years, my mother had one of my dad’s handkerchief’s on her,” Gutro said. “She pulled it out of her pocket.”
Formerly a radio broadcast meteorologist for the Weather Channel, Gutro continues to work as a meteorologist. Additionally, schools, museums, and social groups request him for speaking engagements on weather-related topics. He and his partner love dogs, especially weimaraners and dachshunds. He likes coffee and exercise, he said.
by Erik Zygmonteditor@baltimoreguide.com
