Ghost potion draws hazmat response

In an odd story for August, a family in North Carolina required the assistance of a Hazmat team when a ‘potion’ created to ward off ghosts proved more hazardous to the occupants of the house than anticipated. According to reports, a Winston-Salem Fire Department official said that “Someone associated with the home bought a book on psychic home safety practices, then went to Amazon and bought a 68% concentrated nitric acid and set it by the door to ward off the haints”. A “haint” is a malevolent spirit, and the term derives from the African American Gullah Geechee Culture in South Carolina’s Lowcountry, experts say. The potion’s pungent odor is what prompted a plea for help, officials said. The Hazmat team neutralised the acid and no haints or humans were harmed.