Last spring, Coventry Building and Wrecking began tearing down the old French Worsted Co. building so that the site could be prepped for new construction.

The building dated back to 1906.

"What happened here is still a mystery to me. What was real too was the fear that the construction crew felt and that time, and also what was real was that the work stopped," said Sofia Kaczor, a hydrologist for the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.

The work stopped because of two events that involved a crane.

The crane, which was operated by John Baccaire, went haywire every time it got close to tearing away one part of the building. Baccaire's daughter, Kim, took a picture she said shows what looks like ghosts in the window of the old mill.

"That's not something that I've experienced. So I think if somebody experienced something like that, you would believe in that," Kaczor said.

A second time, Baccaire told NBC 10 a huge beam bounced on the ground and appeared to be guided directly at the crane's cab and missed Baccaire by inches.

The owner of Coventry Building and Wrecking said he'd been doing this for more than 40 years and he could find no explanation why the machine was malfunctioning.

Kim contacted paranormal investigator Andrew Lake, who brought two mediums with him.

"They had this conversation with the spirits in there and explained to them that their time had come and gone, the building must come down and it cannot be saved," Lake said.

Lake told NBC 10 the mediums were successful at getting the spirits to leave the area and the work was able to continue.

But where did the spirits go?

"The girl said to him, ‘You know what? If you don't want to go to the light, why don't you go to one of the buildings nearby and stay there if you don't want to pass on'" Lake said.

"I was glad that there were people that understood the problem and that could take care of it," Kaczor said.