Don't beat yourself up over it. The vast majority of ghost pics obviously turn out to be fakes. To accept a photo on good face from someone you know (even vaguely know) and then discover it's clearly faked is a dissapointment. It happened to me at school, and it made me realise that some people don't take Fortean subjects as seriously as, say, you or me. Don't be overly harsh on them, they are likely just more "conventional" in their thinking than us. I once had a barny at a friend of mine who said she was Fortean in belief but came across as a complete sceptic, even an adamant non believer. She turned to me and said "to be truly fortean, you have to be a sceptic, it's the only way you'll prove the existence of Fortean subjects to anyone but yourself, you have to talk like them, act like them and argue like them."
I think this is what Charles Fort understood too. In the meantime, take jokey criticism with a pinch of salt AND retired police officers recording public urination sites should be treated with caution, and GIVEN a caution!
