That's how paranormal investigator Erich Breger says the spirits at the Brookdale Lodge have been feeling lately.

Breger, the lead investigator with California Paranormal Investigations, took his team to the Santa Cruz Mountains resort late Thursday night to see if they could draw the local haunt's haunters out from the shadows.

Lodge employees, particularly the cooks, have said they've seen increased paranormal activity since the previous owners sold the business and began taking with them old furniture, clippings and memorabilia.

"I think why it's happening is there is definitely a defiling that's going on here," said Breger, a Boulder Creek man with an intense stare, raspy voice, suit and black trench coat.

The Brookdale Lodge has long been thought to be haunted by the spirit of a little girl - among others - who drowned in the creek that runs through the dining area. During the 1940s and '50s, gangsters made the lodge their home, and some legends say they buried bodies under the floor.

The lodge was purchased in October by Sanjiv Kakkar, who announced he would rename it the Brookdale Inn & Spa. Kakkar said he wants to return the fatigued $5.3 million landmark to its former splendor by remaking it into a destination spa.

Opened in 1870, the lodge has been featured on "Ripley's Believe It or Not" and has hosted notables such as Marilyn Monroe and President