Things that go bump in the night

If you are just tuning in, I went to check out my friend's new home (she is renting a room from a couple) and all of them are of the opinion that there are "entities" messing around in the home. For my part, I am very much a "Mulder" in that I want to believe, but in practice I approach things like a "Scully".

I am skeptical, in that I will eliminate what I can, to try to narrow things down to a reasonable "normal" answer.
And I enjoy the hunt, as it were. So we can safely rule out underground water and caverns in Southern California where they are located. Although, I personally wouldn't rule it out entirely considering we are in an earthquake zone.

The symptoms of the home: Cold spots, strange thumping and assorted triggering of alarms, "uneasy" feelings in certain spots, stuff knocked off shelves, items piled up on the floor, and my favorite (and one they could probably interest TV Paranormal investigators on) their cctv footage of odd human shaped shadows wandering through the house.

I cannot prove or disprove the footage, but my suspicion is that with all the recently hacked security devices happening, perhaps someone has done some special FX on their footage....so that is my working theory at the moment. Until I can find a way to analyze the footage, I won't know for certain.

All old houses have drafts and poor insulation in places, which can account for seemingly odd cold spots.

Strange thumping could be anything from the house settling, to issues with heat differentials in different rooms causing the structure to make noises to rats or squirrels in the walls.

More difficult to explain are the items that are moved, knocked off shelves or piled up...although the first two could be caused by low level vibrations, I suppose. Or even one of the human inhabitants sleep walking, perhaps.

All that being said, we purchased some white sage from the local metaphysical supply store and "saged" the house thoroughly, including some rather evil looking tiki masks and some African artifacts, brought back from the owner's various travels around the world. Better safe than sorry...right? And this morning, the human inhabitants indicate things have been quiet.

Placebo effect or?? We may never know. Personally I am hoping for something a bit more tangible to prove the existence of something "other".

Not knowing where any of you stand on the subject of the supernatural or paranormal outside of fiction...I share all this with you, and look forward to your commentary. And for the record - I have had a fair share of odd, perhaps even supernatural experiences. Some of which will sometimes find its way into my fiction. :-)

photo is mine, taken with my Google Pixel 3