Cursed Curbside Relics: The Shadows That Follow Forgotten Portraits
by M.P. Pellicer | Noir Notebook
Beware the treasures left abandoned at the curb. Those gleaming furnishings and forgotten belongings that seem almost too perfect to be discarded. Why would anyone abandon such prizes? If you knew the truth, you would accelerate without a second glance, watching them shrink into the rearview mirror while a cold sigh of relief escapes your lips. For some objects do not wait passively on the roadside. They choose their next keeper… and once claimed, they refuse to let go.
The Lady in the Turban
In 2018, Mel Hamilton discovered a painting of a woman wearing a turban beside a commercial bin on a street in Brighton, UK. The frame was broken, and she assumed that alone explained its abandonment.
She soon suspected far darker reasons. After she reframed the portrait, everything in her life took a turn for the worse.
When her relationship ended, Mel left with only her clothes, her dog, and the painting. By then, the image had already drawn her so deeply that she could not abandon it.
The work bore a signature that appeared to read “Shoansizaw Ekele” and the date 1973—possibly a Nigerian name. Shortly after she moved into a new apartment, her previously healthy German Shepherd died without warning. That is when the dark and unexplainable activity began, activity that would haunt her for three years. Doors opened and closed by themselves. The television changed channels without human touch. One night she awoke to the distinct sound of keys jingling in her lock.
“I would hear the door handles move and the keys go in and out,” she recalled. “This overwhelming darkness was awful, and I was alone. It very quickly became apparent that something was amiss. Everything was going wrong—everything.” Plants and flowers withered soon after she brought them home.
Mel came to believe a dark entity had attached itself to her at her most vulnerable moment. She was battling alcoholism, and when she tried to describe her experiences, others dismissed them as the delusions of drink.
Living in Ramsgate, she said, “Things got really, really unbearable. There was so much activity that I didn’t want to live there. The energy in it was just so bad and so dark. I was a nervous wreck and covered in crosses. I went to a meeting and tried to sound rational, but nobody believed me.”
Three years later, her son threw the portrait away. The ill fortune ceased. Mel became sober, began a new relationship, and at last felt at ease in her home. The conclusion seemed inevitable: the portrait itself had been the harbinger of the darkness.
The Captain’s Portrait
Like many haunted places open to the public, the Corned Beef & Co. in Roanoke, Virginia, reveals its true nature only after hours. Employees blame the disturbances on a portrait of Captain Andrew McKeever.
Today the warnings are heeded. Staff dust the picture but never move it. Those who do claim the captain’s ghost begins to follow them. Some believe mere proximity is enough to provoke him.
Lights flicker on and off. Voices rise in the billiard room when the restaurant is closed. Names are whispered from empty spaces.
The general manager recounted one incident: “A girl that was hanging Christmas lights around the captain—she actually touched the painting; she cut her hand pretty bad that day at Corned Beef. The people who touched it and tried to clean it saw shadows walking around; things would get knocked off the countertops.
Captain Andrew Edward McKeever was a World War I Canadian two-seater flying ace. Together with his gunners, he was credited with 31 victories, all but two of them against German Albatros D.V fighters. After the war, he accepted a position managing an airfield in Mineola, New York, hoping to remain close to the skies he loved.
Ironically, after surviving so many aerial combats, he never began the job. In his hometown of Listowel, an automobile accident broke his leg. Complications set in, and on Christmas Day 1919 he died of cerebral thrombosis. He was only twenty-five years old.
The war did not treat the McKeever family well.
Two years later his brother, Capt. James Campbell McKeever died at the age of 30. Like his brother, he joined the Royal Air Force and won distinction. Jim, as he was known, received a splinter of shrapnel which lodged in his eye. This eventually affected his nerves. After two years of treatment, he succumbed.
The Two Dolls
In March 2022, a painting of two dolls appeared on eBay. Like many similar objects, it was offered either for notoriety or out of fear. The man who purchased it—using the pseudonym Dan Smith—later claimed the item ruined his life.
A self-described “collector of weird things,” he first saw the innocuous-looking painting at a flea market. The woman selling it warned him away. Whether she sought a clear conscience or simply employed the oldest sales pitch known to collectors, the warning worked. He bought it.
His eBay listing read:
“BEWARE CURSED Vintage Painting Dolls Art Creepy Eerie WARNING 1967.
The woman at the flea market warned me before buying this, and I will warn you—no good can come from this painting. I didn’t think much of it at the time and just assumed she was one of those oddball dealers hawking their wares for cheap.
As for the painting, it looked adorable, with two innocent-seeming dolls portrayed in it… but she was right—don’t be deceived.
I don’t know whose cursed blood was mixed in with the paint to create this piece, but its powers are strong.”
Once the painting hung in his home, biblical-scale misfortune followed. Insects infested the house. His healthy hamster died. Sleep fled. He suffered sickness, loneliness, sleeplessness, and unease. The only change in his life before the darkness descended had been the purchase of the painting.
He refused to destroy it by fire, fearing the act might “easily unleash the evil… and make things ten times worse.” Instead, he chose to sell it to someone who either dismissed curses or, like him, felt fatally drawn to them.
Further details in the listing noted:
“For the details on the piece—it comes with the frame; it is dusty since I never got around to cleaning it off after hanging it. As for that artist, it is signed with the initials MNP 3-67. Of course, that could also just stand for something like ‘Many Nightmares & Phobias,’ which is what the artwork leads to. I’m starting the auction at $50, which is what I paid for it, but am hoping it goes for more to make up for everything I’ve been through. But before you bid… you’ve been warned!”
Lest you think your chance of buying a creepy painting off eBay is lost, the painting “Disdain of Bewilderment” was up for sale for $550 plus shipping cost as of August, 2026. If you wonder where the curse came from, in the description of other paintings, the curse is invoked by the artist.
This is the item description:
“This unique piece of art titled “Disdain of Bewilderment” is a stunning original painting by Jonathan Jeffrey and is believed to be cursed. The painting combines many of the artist’s distinctive styles and uses elements of postmodernism, surrealism, and portraiture, along with a theme of environmental disasters to create a truly captivating piece.