The Furniture Phantom

The San-Mor Furniture Company moved into a building on Peace Street in Thomasville in 1973. One evening a few days later, in the main workroom, owner Victor Couch spotted a dim form that walked by and disappeared. As the weeks went by and Mr. Couch saw the shadowy figure more and more, he questioned his own vision and wondered if he had lost a marble somewhere along the way.

So Mr. Couch visited a psychiatrist and spent a half-hour talking about his problems. When his time was up, the psychiatrist asked him the real reason for the visit, and Mr. Couch reluctantly admitted to having seen an apparition in the factory. The psychiatrist responded, "Why the hell didn't you tell me that in the first place?" Mr. Couch left with a lighter wallet, but feeling comforted that what he was seeing was not a figment of his imagination.

Other workers in the factory spotted the ghost and began to call him Lucifer. Later, one of the workers called him Lucas, and the name stuck. (The ghost in Dana Auditorium is also called Lucas, apparently a popular name for wandering spirits." Several times employees heard stacks of lumber falling, but found nothing out of the order when they investigated. One night just before locking up, Mr. Couch spread out tools in a certain order on a table. When he opened the factory the next morning, he found that Lucas, not to be outdone, had gathered the tools together into a pile.,

Lucas appears to be a middle-aged man, about 5 feet 10 inches tall, with hair that is visible, but too dim to tell the color. He appears as a hazy figure, more transparent than opaque. His facial features are not discernible, no are his hands and feet, but his clothes are very distinctive. Lucas wears a long-sleeved, checked shirt, and khaki work pants.

He normally comes out after 3:30 p.m. and loves the nighttime, however Mr. Couch's daughter spotted Lucas disappearing behind some boxes around 9:00 p.m. one morning. The ghost has been spotted hundreds of times by dozens of people, and has become one of the most documented ghosts on record, having been investigated by TV, radio, newspapers, and well-known parapsychologists. One psychic researcher reported that Lucas grabbed her shoulder during a seance. A camera crew from the television show, That's Incredible, spent three nights in the factory several years ago. They brought expensive camera equipment and planned to film and photograph Lucas. Sure enough, they spotted him and aimed their cameras in his direction, but when the film was developed, it showed no sign of Lucas.

However, Lucas has been spotted on film twice. Three ladies had a photograph taken of themselves one evening inside the factory, and the picture showed a blurry figure that was barely visible of their right. Also, a local TV station came of film Lucas, but as he was shy that evening, they thought they were out of luck. Just to have something to do, once of the cameramen shot footage of Mr. Couch walking down a short stairway, and when the film was developed, an indistinct, milky outline appeared to be moving just behind Mr. Couch. Lucas is sensitive about whom he will be photographed with.