--- title: "Haunted Woman Calls the Cops After Discovering a Rug Mysteriously Buried in Her Backyard" description: "After digging up a weird rug buried in her backyard, an Ohio woman began experiencing some unexplained goings-on." date: "2024-10-04" modified: "2024-10-04" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/rug-buried-yard-tiktok-police" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "mysteries" - "ohio" - "the digest" - "tiktok" --- # Haunted Woman Calls the Cops After Discovering a Rug Mysteriously Buried in Her Backyard ![After digging up a weird rug buried in her backyard, an Ohio woman began experiencing some unexplained goings-on.]() *\Image: TikTok / Futurism\* ## No Diggity After digging up a weird rug buried in her backyard, an Ohio woman began experiencing some unexplained goings-on — and eventually decided to bring in the cavalry. As [*People* reports](), Columbus local Katie Santry discovered the buried and rolled-up rug when she and her boyfriend were digging to build a fence. Videos of her experience immediately went viral on TikTok, with readers immediately jumping to some wild conclusions. Soon after the digging commenced, the 34-year-old mother walked into her home office to find her laptop screen shattered and her desk items strewn about. Santry accused everyone in the house, from her boyfriend Brandon and his two kids to her own son, of breaking the computer. But they all said that they hadn't even been near the room where it happened and that the doors were closed. Suddenly, a macabre thought occurred to her, as relayed to *People*: "Is there a dead body in that rug? Or is it the ghost of the rug’s past?" Santry took to TikTok to discuss her conundrum, querying followers in a [now-viral initial post]() in which she asked "What on earth happened? Is there a ghost breaking my stuff?" As she told *People*, Santry decided after the whopping response to that first video, which garnered five million views and thousands of comments, to literally keep digging. The woman, her boyfriend, and her kids soon found, however, that the ground was too dry to dig with their normal shovels due to [Columbus' recent drought conditions](). At an impasse, Santry said her kids lost interest soon lost interest, but she became worried about the potential spirit whose soul may have been encased in the rug. "What if there really is a body?" she asked herself, as recounted to *People*. "How could you not help that person find peace?" ## Official Backup Two days after that [first post went viral](), the woman decided to call the police, who arrived within 15 minutes only to tell her that it would take a full canvass of the yard to assess whether or not any human remains were buried there. While waiting for that process to start, Santry decided to do some digital sleuthing of her own and brought her [ballooning number of followers]() along for the ride. She discovered that only one family had owned the house before her, and that both of the elderly former tenants were still alive and living in a nearby nursing home. After getting in touch, the couple's adult daughter even promised to go speak to them to ask if they knew anything. In her interview with *People*, Santry said that although she doesn't "think there's a dead body down there," she's still compelled to find out why the rug was buried in the first place. "My biggest concern is my computer because, at the end of the day, it shattered for no apparent reason," she continued. "That leaves me with the most question marks." **More on Midwestern mysteries:** [*Scientists Stumped by "Dozens" of Gigantic Holes at the Bottom of a Lake*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()