Where do I begin? Our group was in a bind as our walking tour of Atchison was canceled last minute. Steve was gracious and found room for us to join and we were excited for some Atchison ghost history, his customer service and responsiveness is spot on and for that, he earned 2 stars.
We arrived at 1322 Maple to find Steve and his "business partner" (who clearly had never performed a tour before) getting 2 cigarette smelling 1980s vans ready for us to embark. Before the tour even starts we were desperate for Steve to stop talking and trying to show us videos of "ghosts" on his phone. He's like a bad used car salesman and repeats rambling nonsense, mostly about how he died once and he owns a weird doll and a "Hitler Book." We spent 2 hours driving up to "haunted" sites around town, his partner never knew where we were and would read boring facts off a sheet of paper. The majority of the historical facts Steve spews are wrong, we had fun fact checking him as he talked. He tried to convince us demons were messing with his phone because it wasn't working right - couldn't be because the screen is shattered and he's obviously dropped it several times. Don't forget your flashlights so you can shine them in the windows of the "haunted" houses and then realize people live in some of these houses and probably don't appreciate it. No restrooms on the tour but he will drive you to Casey's as many times as you want to purchase your own snacks. You will be forced to listen to deafening fake ghosts sounds through a Bluetooth speaker connected to his phone. After 2 hours and 3 stops in he told us we still had 8 stops left, we informed him we needed to cut it short, he thankfully obliged before we rioted.
The house was the cherry on top. Clearly rigged with motion sensors and speakers shouting out your names that Steve wrote down when you arrived so he can program them into whatever app he uses, he made us wander around in the woods behind the house in the cold dark before going in (had to show us where the lawn mower is kept) the living room boasts bowls full of old batteries, photos he's hung on the walls upside down, and we watched this grown man walk in the kitchen where we can't see and then run out yelling that he "just got hit by a stick!" (Why are there sticks in the kitchen? Don't ask.) When he started screaming into the air for the demons to stop it, it was so cringe, we were done. To sum up- This grifter trying to make a buck bought a crappy old house and rigged it to try and convince those willing to pay $49.95 that it's full of ghosts.
The highlight was that I hadn't laughed this hard for 3 hours straight in a long time. We laughed at the fake ghost hunting equipment, his partner Mike's quality commentary, the absurdity that we paid money for this experience. We even laughed at this yelp page and the obvious 5 star ratings that Steve has written himself. I didn't believe in ghosts before and I still don't, and that's all thanks to Steve. He deserves all the credit. read more