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Lock your doors before reading this story, my friends, and prepare for a wild ride.
In 2014, Maria and Derek Broaddus purchased what they hoped would be the ideal home to raise their three young children. The $1.4 million, six-bedroom home sit on a quiet street in the affluent neighborhood in Westfield, a New Jersey, a town about 30 miles southwest of New York City with a median household income of $160,000.
Five years later, the couple sold the idyllic home for a $440,640 loss without even ever living in it.
The reason: The Watcher.
In June of 2014, Derek Broaddus had just finished painting what would eventually become his new home after completing a series of renovations when a trip to his mailbox would change his life.
Derek found a white, card-shaped envelope that was addressed in “thick clunky handwriting” to “The New Owner.”
The letter began cordially.
Dearest new neighbor at 657 Boulevard,
Allow me to welcome you to the neighborhood.
Upon reading, Derek began feeling like he was dealing with something far more harrowing than a over-eager neighbor. “How did you end up here?” the letter asked. “Did 657 Boulevard call to you with its force within?”
“657 Boulevard has been the subject of my family for decades now and as it approaches its 110th birthday, I have been put in charge of watching and waiting for its second coming. My grandfather watched the house in the 1920s and my father watched in the 1960s. It is now my time. Do you know the history of the house? Do you know what lies within the walls of 657 Boulevard? Why are you here? I will find out.”
An extensive investigation by The Cut uncovered countless letters that determined the author of the letters had known intimate details of the Broaddus family–such as the whereabouts of their children and the progress of home renovations.
Do you need to fill the house with the young blood I requested? Better for me. Was your old house too small for the growing family? Or was it greed to bring me your children? Once I know their names I will call to them and draw them too [sic] me.
The 'Watcher' House is a disturbing urban legend from New Jersey regarding a series of letters penned by a figure known as the Watcher which arrive after new occupants move in, they rarely last. They can't help that feeling of being watched. #FolkloreThursday pic.twitter.com/v4yOFmfBdP
— Dead (@deadscribe) May 3, 2018
Shit got weirder:
“Will the young blood play in the basement?” the letter read. “Or are they too afraid to go down there alone. I would [be] very afraid if I were them. It is far away from the rest of the house. If you were upstairs you would never hear them scream.”
And weirder:
I pass by many times a day. 657 Boulevard is my job, my life, my obsession. And now you are too Braddus family. Welcome to the product of your greed! Greed is what brought the past three families to 657 Boulevard and now it has brought you to me.
The case was investigated by the Westfield police and the Union County prosecutor’s office, but no one has been charged.
Six months after the first letter, the Broadduses attempted to sell the home for more than the $1.4 million they paid for it to account for the renovations they made to the house while living in their old home. By then, the damage was done. The well-to-do town had already heard about The Watcher, and rumors forbid the home from being sold, even after lowering the price.
Another six months after they attempted to sell the home, the Broadduses filed a legal complaint against the previous owners, the Woods, claiming that they received a letter from Teh Watcher and failed to disclose it.
The Woods said in a court filing that they received only one anonymous note just days before the Broadduses closed on the house, and it was not threatening. The case was dismissed in 2017, according to Business Insider.
It got as far as the Broadduses attempting to bulldoze the house, but they then received a letter from The Watcher threatening revenge.
“Maybe a car accident. Maybe a fire. Maybe something as simple as a mild illness that never seems to go away but makes you fell sick day after day after day after day after day. Maybe the mysterious death of a pet. Loved ones suddenly die. Planes and cars and bicycles crash. Bones break.”
The family eventually sold the home they never lived in for $440,640 less than they purchased it for, not even taking into account how much they shelled out on renovations, security, and private investigators.
It remains to be seen if the new family will be plagued by The Watcher.
[h/t The Cut, Business Insider]