Claim: chinless ghost photographed at a Police incident in Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland

[Mythic Suns]

The photo below was taken on November 15th by Lisa Todd and was featured in this article posted yesterday by the Daily Record

I'm personally sceptical and don't believe that whatever is circled in is a ghost, but at the same time I'm having trouble figuring out what it really is. If I was to make an educated guess I would say it's the parallax effect in action causing objects to line up and create the illusion of a person, but to come to that conclusion I would need to know what the objects are, and sadly the photo above seems to be the only image which means we've only got the one angle to work with.

It's also pretty clear that the picture used in the article is a screenshot because it has the iOS volume bar on the left side of it, this to me suggests that the woman in question was filming the police incident and then sent one of the frames as a screenshot to the Daily Record, however I also know that taking multiple screenshots is a good way to degrade the quality of a jpeg image, but I don't really have the necessary knowledge to determine if there's any intentional image degradation so for now I'm just going to assume that the former is more likely.

If anyone here has any ideas or would like to add some details I might've missed then please let me know.

 

[JMartJr]

I'm struggling to see anything other than a person standing there, partially obscured by the van's door. Without the moving image, it is hard to tell if it is that or just some bit of pareidolia.

 

[Mythic Suns]

I'm struggling to see anything other than a person standing there, partially obscured by the van's door. Without the moving image, it is hard to tell if it is that or just some bit of pareidolia.

I want to say it's another police officer but if it is then he either isn't wearing his hat or the black and white checkers usually seen on their hats are obscured.

 

[Shrinker]

Location is High Street, Irvine, Scotland

 

[Ann K]

The "figure" seems to be just the shadow of the right side half-open door. You can see the irregular shape of the door better by looking at the fully opened door on the left. The "face" is something on the inside that is slightly darker than the mesh, and the shadow rakes down steeply as the sun is moderately high in the sky, hiding the "chin".

 

[Mythic Suns]

Location is High Street, Irvine, Scotland

Woah, great job matching that up.

 

[Shrinker]

I thought the ghost might be made of two policemen both half in&out the back of the van but it looks like they would be behind the cage door in that case. The space between the cage and the rear doors is quite small and an odd place for a person to be climbing in or out.

 

[Mendel]

Location is High Street, Irvine, Scotland

Your map shows that the sun would've been coming from the left, but it's either overcast, or the buildings throw shadows.

Article:

Lisa Todd took the spooky photo on Monday, November 15 at 3.40pm outside the Bridgegate council office on High Street in Irvine town centre.
A startled Lisa said: "I was just being nosey and wanted to take a picture of what was happening with the police, but I was shocked when I looked at the photo and saw someone standing next to the police officer who wasn't there.
"I went home, and was in the house myself and started to freak myself out so I sent the picture to my mum and she agreed it was freaky.

Source: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/ayrshire/woman-freaked-out-after-capturing-25537609

From this account, I'm not convinced she noticed the "ghost" at the scene, before she went home. If she only noticed this at home, she would no lonver have been in a position to verify that there was no second person.

Looking at your van picture, the backside of the ghost is actually a part of the door, it's just not visible in the underexposed picture. This makes the ghost more noticeable in the photo than the person was in reality.

 

[deirdre]

I want to say it's another police officer but if it is then he either isn't wearing his hat or the black and white checkers usually seen on their hats are obscured.

the other guy doesnt seem to be wearing the checkered hat either.

The space between the cage and the rear doors is quite small and an odd place for a person to be climbing in or out.

he or she is likely standing on the bumper or one of those things guys add to their pickup trucks so short people can climb up (forget what they are called)

(this is not same van, but its step up is black)



this is same van with a yellow step up you can see more clearly




the real questions are:
who would bother to take a pic of a scene with such a bad camera?
is it possible for cameras to be so bad still in scotland?
what "incident" occurred that required a paddy-wagon? and why can't i find a blurb about that incident?
what is this (red arrow)
why is the right side of the blue circle all clear looking, but the left side isnt?



and the MOST important question, why is the UK selling an old paddy wagon with cage intact? it's like a serial killers dream!
https://www.barnsleyvansales.com/ve...-l1-diesel-fwd-for-sale-wakefield-road-u3628/

 

[Rory]

I'm pretty sure it's just Demetri Martin:



This drawing of him looks even more like 'the ghost':

 

[Mythic Suns]

who would bother to take a pic of a scene with such a bad camera?

I think the answer to that question lies in my earlier point, though I probably should've elaborated.

It's also pretty clear that the picture used in the article is a screenshot because it has the iOS volume bar on the left side of it, this to me suggests that the woman in question was filming the police incident and then sent one of the frames as a screenshot to the Daily Record.

What I should've added is that they might've paused the video, taken a screenshot, zoomed in on that screenshot, and then took a screenshot of that screenshot. Equally it could've just been a photo and the person operating the phone had no idea how to use the crop feature and improvised instead.

Now in terms of shooting distance, if I use Shrinker's post (#4) as a reference I can safely assume the video was shot from somewhere between Iceland and Mamma's Fish and Chip shop, and at that distance I don't think even a good camera would be able to get a good shot without either a good telephoto lens (I reckon anywhere between 300mm to 400mm on any size sensor would do the trick) or an absolutely massive megapixel count that would allow for digital zoom with minimal reduction in image quality (smartphones are getting better in that department but a lot of them still only have somewhere between 12mp and 19mp). The latter isn't impossible but also isn't common, whilst the former tends to be something you're more likely to see from someone who takes photography more seriously.

Even with all that in mind, the real answer to your question is basic motivation. What will get you more attention from a desperate newspaper? a nice crystal clear photo of a police van with nothing to indicate anything strange going on, or a photo that looks so unclear that the viewer is forced to use their imagination and come to their own conclusions?

 

[Mythic Suns]

Your map shows that the sun would've been coming from the left, but it's either overcast, or the buildings throw shadows.

Not sure how relevant this is but sunset would've been around 4:28pm, roughly 50 minutes after the image was captured.

EDIT: I rephrased my reply to make the meaning a little clearer (in the original reply it sounded like I was saying the photo was shot at 4:28pm) and since we don't know how the image was captured (whether it was a video or a photo) I decided to use slightly more vague terminology. I'll change it back if necessary.

 

[Mendel]

Not sure how relevant this is but sunset would've been around 4:28pm when the photo was shot.

Yes. With it being November and the picture having been taken at 3:40, I thought there'd be a lot of shadow about from the buildings.