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  • #16
    Second of Two from My Livejournal At work Ghost Story

    March 22nd, 2006
    Ghost Stories
    3/22/06 10:56 am

    It is, of course, the perfect time to tell ghost stories, because no one else is. These are a couple of true things that happened to me at my previous job. The building was over 30 years old, and had been home to a number of different law firms. We even joked about having a cleansing ritual done before we moved in. I seriously think we should have.

    I had a small interior office that I shared with the other word processor. Very busy, from shortly after I came in until often late at night. While there, a floater secretary was hired. I'll call her RR. She has become a good friend. But we're both psychic, and we seemed to make the other more psychic when we were around each other. One day I'm slaving away, when I suddenly feel like a weight has settled on my head and shoulders. It was also painful. I called RR right away and she came to my office. I told her what was happening, but she said she couldn't see anything. She waved her hand over my head, and whatever it was jumped away.

    Me: It's under the desk now. It's like a cold blast of air. (The heater was in the ceiling.)

    RR: I don't see it.

    Me: Wait, it's moved out.

    RR: I see it. It's under the printer table.

    I looked, and it was one of those things you could see from the corner of your eye. A gray fog.

    RR: Give me the candle on your desk. (I had a white candle that I had purchased because I liked the fragrance.)

    Despite fire worries, RR lit the candle then waved it under the table. It moved, then seemed to disappear.

    RR: Keep this on your desk lit for a while. It shouldn't come back.

    Me: Thanks. I just hope it doesn't set off the sprinkler system.

    I let the candle burn for a bit, then put it out. Things seemed back to normal for a while.

    Then, that afternoon, I suddenly felt as if there was a scared child in the room with me. I looked around.

    Me: What is it? What do you need?

    Something from just the edge of my vision moved carefully toward me.

    Me: It's okay. Come here. Are you lost?

    It moved onto my lap, and I used my arms to make a circle around it.

    Me: It'll be all right. You're just lost.

    I slowly got up, holding my arms in position.

    Me: Come with me, I'll show you out.

    I slowly walked across the hall and into an empty office that had a window, speaking softly the whole time.

    Me: See that?

    I pointed toward the window.

    Me: Isn't it beautiful? You need to go out there. You'll find your way then.
    Just a few minutes before, it had stopped raining, and the clouds were opening to the sun. I waved toward the window. I felt it move, and then it was gone.

    It never came back. It seemed happy when it left.

    This really happened. I'll tell the other story another day.
    Labor boards have info on local laws for free
    HR believes the first person in the door
    Learn how to go over whackamole bosses' heads safely
    Document everything
    CS proves Dunning-Kruger effect

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    • #17
      When I used to manage a bookstore, sometimes I'd have to go help out at another store in the city and they told me they had a ghost. People who have seen him say he's a young boy dressed in a ratty civil war uniform. Since we're surrounded by battlefields here I am not surprised. He doesn't hurt anybody or damage anything, but some mornings when they would come in to open, books and games in the childrens section would be out and left on the floor like someone was reading/playing with them. I always felt bad for the little guy, I wonder if he's stuck here and alone? My husband just thinks I am nuts because I even have empathy for cartoon characters too!

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      • #18
        Quoth dawnmaria View Post
        I always felt bad for the little guy, I wonder if he's stuck here and alone?
        I understand completely. I started crying (and so did the homeowner) when Ghosthunters played an EVP recording that sounded like a little boy saying, "They don't want us here."
        Labor boards have info on local laws for free
        HR believes the first person in the door
        Learn how to go over whackamole bosses' heads safely
        Document everything
        CS proves Dunning-Kruger effect

        Comment


        • #19
          Sorry, this is going to be a looooong post ..

          I have hundreds and hundreds of ghost stories, because for some strange reason I "attract" spirits. Everyplace I have lived, went to school, went to work or even visit frequently has had at LEAST a couple of incidents involving haunting and spirits, and in almost every incident I had witnesses so that now my "ability" is quite well known among my friends.

          In spite of this, I get freaked out easily over "bumps in the nights". That's why I never try communicating with them, except in several occassions when I think they've gotten a little too far in their attempts to communicate or are too loud, then I would yell at them to go away. But most of the time I would pretend they're not there and just haul ass as fast as I could out of whatever place I see them. Like I said, this is quite well known amongst my friends so whenever I'm walking around with them, and all of the sudden I would run for no apparent reason, they would know that I have seen something and would be right behind me, running and sometimes screaming their heads off.

          Over the years, this has progressed. I became not only sensitive to spirits, but I have gained other abilities. Like sometimes I could tell the future, find a missing item, predict things about my friends that they have told absolutely NOONE about, scan people for diseases, and sometimes I would be talking to people I have just met and describe one of their family members (usually dead family members) that I have no previous knowledge about. Or sometimes I would have the urge to call one of my friends and describe what he/she is wearing/doing at that exact moment, scaring the crap out of them because I'm usully right. But anyway, this comes and goes and one time an Indonesian shaman told me that I don't have the strength or ability to control it yet.

          Anyhoos, work related hauntings.
          I used to work in a clothing store, and weeeeird things would happen there alot. The store had a small office in back where employees would hang out after work (some of us actually LIVED there for a while). The store had a single glass door (it's a really tiny store) and at night after the store closes we would pull out a second, sliding metal door that covers the entire front of the store. Nobody could get into the store through the sliding metal door after we had locked it, and the only way into the store is through the store's back door which connects to the storeroom and office.
          The door has a motion-detector-sensor-automatic-greeting alarm over it, so when the store is open and someone enter's a store it would automatically go "DING! DONG! Welcome!"
          Sometimes at night, usually around the hours of midnight, all us employees who are still in the office would hear that alarm go off. For no apparent reason! One time we even took down the alarm thingy to check if it was broken, but it wasn't. But in the end we just got used to it and everytime it goes off after the store has closed we would just say that "the night customers has come to shop".

          There are alot of other stories about that store, but this has been a really long post and I'll tell you about it another time.
          -It's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything.
          -I see the strongest and smartest men who have ever lived. And these men are pumping gas and waiting tables.-Fight Club

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          • #20
            Quoth BrightEyedKitty View Post
            ... the apparition of a face.
            I kinda make out a face... but it looks like it smiling. (Perhaps smiling with malice!)
            The only thing wrong with society is the people in it.

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            • #21
              For a time, I was affiliated with TAPS. But, that has long since past into obscurity. That voice, was a little girl though; and she said very sadly, painfully even. "They don't want us here." talking about the family.

              Now, onto some more personal stories. These from Lowe's.

              You know, in a big building you hear creaks and groans? No matter how large the building is, you'll always hear something. It's a given. Buildings settle, shift, winds move things. Eventually, you get used to it, or so you tell yourself.

              I remember, things always felt strange in that store. I was tested in the past, and yes, I am a borderline clairvoyant. (no I see dead people jokes please ) I wasn't the only one that noticed the odd feelings. Nearly everyone who closed late at night said that something just didn't feel right about the store. In fact, in places, something was down right WRONG there.

              There were nights, that management would have to come up, the alarms going ballistic. At first, they chalked it up to mice and rats. And at one point even cats. Fixing the sensativity on the things, they ruled all that out, and still every so often the alarms would go of. Then, the security cameras started picking up things. Odd shapes that would dance across the screens at night, and in one case, a camera that just simply up and died. They replaced it, and within a day, it was dead again. Something didn't want a camera on that end of the store it seemed.

              Sometimes, things would move of their own accord. Now, I'm not talking minor things. No, At one point a forklift moved. While left in Lumber one night, we arrived at the store to find it parked in the front of customer service. No clue HOW it got there without setting off the alarms though.

              Wal-Mart backed up to us, sharing part of a parkling lot and a good portion of the tract. (land). I remember, talking with people there about what happened at our store, only to be told they had similar happening. Strange things that would be caught on camera, people who vanished before your eyes, and then, there were the lights.

              Yeah, lights.

              You see, our store (lowes) had been built right up to this old pond. Big nice deep thing that I sometimes fished. Never caught much, but always had this funky feeling I was being watched. Most of the time I brushed it off or even said aloud "Hey, I'm fishing here. Chill. You're scaring the fish." to which the feeling would leave for a while. According to some of the Wal-Mart associates, several times at night, they would see lights out over this lake. Lights that couldn't be explained. Several times, they thought there was something burning there, and would call the FD; but nothing was ever found.

              To this day, I have a strong suspicion of what caused them. Something I've only told a few people.

              I did research on my city you see. Searching out possible solutions. There were only two I could come up with. Two plausible solutions.

              1.) During WW2, our city had a large airfield where bomber crews were trained to fly the Mitchell, and then Flying Fortress bombers. Supposedly, during one night flight, a plane went down in the field area that became our store. Possibly ending up in the lake itself. All crew men were killed. The wreckage, after the bodies were removed, was said to have been bulldozed into a trench and buried. (Standard Procedure during war I'm told).

              2.) Also, around the same time of this, there was a small family farm on the land that was to become Wal-Mart. Local legend holds that this farm had its only family cemetary, but that cemetary may have been paved under.
              Learn wisdom by the follies of others.

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              • #22
                Okay, this is not work-related, but heck, I already mentioned my haunted hotel. This story is just weird. It is one I have told very few people in my life about, despite the fact that I am not known for being shy or quiet. This, you see, is the story of the phone call from my dead father.

                A little setup: In the late seventies, when I was in grade school, my father went into business for himself. As part of that, he set up a second phone line in the house, which had only one phone on it, located in his office, which we referred to as the Red Phone, being as it was, well, red. This phone had a number that none of us kids were allowed to give out, and which my father only gave out to his business clients. It was not listed. Also, I need to mention that my father was a devout bridge player. (For those of you who don't know, bridge is a card game, which I can't explain since I frankly don't understand it at all.) My mom played too, but was not as into it as Dad, so he often played with another friend, Cathy, as his regular partner. Since her husband was not that into the game either, this worked well for everyone concerned. One more thing: I tend to be analytical and skeptical of most things that cannot be proven to me, I am not generally hysterical, and while I have always had a vivid imagination, I have also always known the difference between fantasy and reality.

                In late 1980, my father had a seizure and was hospitalized. He was diagnosed with a rare kidney disease which, as luck would have it, can be hereditary, meaning there is a good chance I may contract it myself one day. (This may explain much about the hedonistic day-to-day way I live my life.) After several months of fighting, living longer than his doctors thought was possible, my father died in March of 1981. I was not quite 11. Despite the fact that we knew it was a distinct possibility, it still came as a profound shock to my mother, my sisters, and myself.

                A few weeks after the funeral, I was puttering about the house by myself, doing whatever it is 11 year old boys do when they are left to their own devices. I was near his office when suddenly the Red Phone rang. My mother had not gotten around to having it disconnected yet. I was still confused, though, as by this time all his business associates knew he had died. But there it was, the Red Phone was ringing. Though we had always been told not to answer it, since we were kids and it was a business phone, I frankly didn't see how that mattered now. And since it kept ringing, I answered it. "Hello?"

                Even as I type this, 25 years later, a chill still goes up my spine, just as it did when I heard the voice on the other end.

                "Is Cathy there?" The voice sounded very familiar, though very confused and disoriented. Much as someone who has been hospitalized for a while might sound. "No, I think you have the wrong number," I blurted out. "Is this xxx-xxxx?" "Yes," I said, "but no one by that name lives here." At this point, I was starting to get really freaked out. The number was correct, the voice sounded very much like Dad's, and it was asking for one of Dad's best friends. The voice asked again if Cathy was there, again quoted the correct number, but I again insisted that they must have the wrong number. Eventually, the caller hung up, but the entire time, that voice was one that was disoriented, confused, and not very sure of itself, and it remains the creepiest, eeriest conversation I have ever had.

                I cannot state for a fact, given my analytical nature, that that was the voice of my father, weeks after he had died. Neither can I offer any other logical or rational explanation for that phone call. I do know that that phone call did take place, that it was not in any way imagined or hallucinated by a child desperate for the return of his father. I cannot satisfactorily explain it. Think what you will. Believe as you must. It would be against my nature to tell you otherwise.

                But that phone call haunts me to this day. I believe it always will.

                "The Customer Is Always Right...But The Bartender Decides Who Is
                Still A Customer."

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                • #23
                  Ooh, one of my favorite subjects!!

                  First, though....Broomjockey, I'm going to float an idea that I think may apply to your situation. You'll probably think I'm nuts, though. I'm Pagan and am on a Druid/Viking path. What you're experiencing sounds a lot like fairies. One of my friends son's has fairies (the girls) pinching him and such all the time. They do that kind of stuff to people they like, it's in no way malicious.

                  Now, on to my ghost stories....

                  The Hasting's that I work at now has at least three ghosts. This has been confirmed by my friend's adopted father, he's a ghosthunter in San Antonio. One hangs out in the back hallway of the store and me and a couple of other people are the only ones who will go back there at night. I think it's the spirit of the Asst Mgr of the grocery store next door that was shot and killed during a robbery about 7 years ago. Another one is a lady in white that I'll see every now and then smack in the middle of the store....where the music desk is! The third one tends to roam and likes to look through books and also seems to find it highly amusing to walk right up behind me. You know how you can feel someone standing behind you? That's the feeling! I'm the only it does this too.

                  When I worked at Dillard's up in the Homelines Dept, there was one there. Not only did he like to look through the sheets (not sure why), he shoved a bowl off of a display shelf one time. I was in the stockroom and my co-worker was over in a completely different part of the department and this thing just went flying off! Now, how do I know it was a he? I heard it speak, many times! I could never understand him, but I started calling him "George" and he seemed happy with it.

                  There's a restaurant in Mesilla (just outside Las Cruces, NM) that has a lot of ghosts and things happening. There's one room that I won't go into, the Carlotta room, it's just wrong in there. Then there's the two chairs that have to be re-upholstered every now and then....even though nobody ever sits in them!

                  I could go on and on, New Mexico has tons of ghosts. It's probably easier to tell you what's not haunted. They generally don't really freak me out. It's something that's just "normal" for here. And you can tell immediately if they're malicious or not. Some really good books about our ghost are "Adobe Angels" by Antonio Garcez, he's also got one about Arizona.
                  It's floating wicker propelled by fire!

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                  • #24
                    Quoth Pagan View Post
                    Ooh, one of my favorite subjects!!

                    First, though....Broomjockey, I'm going to float an idea that I think may apply to your situation. You'll probably think I'm nuts, though. I'm Pagan and am on a Druid/Viking path. What you're experiencing sounds a lot like fairies. One of my friends son's has fairies (the girls) pinching him and such all the time. They do that kind of stuff to people they like, it's in no way malicious.
                    I never even thought of something like that. I recently started down the druid path, and I'm still trying to learn as much as I can. It would actually be nice if it was fairies, I'd take it as a sign to press on.
                    Ba'al: I'm a god. Gods are all-knowing.

                    http://unrelatedcaptions.com/45147

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                    • #25
                      Quoth Broomjockey View Post
                      I never even thought of something like that. I recently started down the druid path, and I'm still trying to learn as much as I can. It would actually be nice if it was fairies, I'd take it as a sign to press on.
                      Just wait until they start hiding things from you....like the TV remote. They will take it into their realm for a while, took one of mine for 3 days, then bring it back and leave it some random place....like the closet!
                      It's floating wicker propelled by fire!

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                      • #26
                        Better late than never. I can relate to several of the people who've already posted here in that I also live in an extremely haunted locale with just scads of local legends and haunted places (and it's under a curse to boot!), in that I too work at a haunted hotel, and in that to judge from the sheer frequency of occurrences in my family, we can only conclude that it's not that we keep living and working in haunted places -- we ourselves are haunted.

                        But let's limit this to just plain old work.

                        I'm a desk clerk at an unremarkable chain motel that turned ten years old at the end of July. We have three ghosts -- the infamous "Dead Lady in Rm 113," a headless man, and a woman in a white dress.

                        You see the Dead Lady most often. We believe she is the ghost of a guest who committed suicide in our jacuzzi suite five years ago when her husband left her. She spent a few days here before she overdosed on sleeping pills. Now and then you see her in the hallway, and you often get the feeling you're not alone in the first floor hallway. In addition, a former employee here who was a retired sheriff's deputy swore she came up to the front desk on at least two occasions, asked what was served for breakfast, and disappeared.

                        Another time we had a guest who was staying in a room at the far end of the building. Over the course of the week he stayed here, we noticed that he was going outside and coming through the parking lot in order to get to the lobby rather than just going through the inside hallway. It was odd because it was winter and quite cold. When we asked him about it he said that every time walked past the door of the jacuzzi suite, something would bang on it from inside and it was giving him the creeps.

                        On another occasion I was chased out of that room by an unusually dark shadow when I was having to move a refrigerator from that room to another. Frequently, we find that either the television or the radio in that room have switched themselves on. One night, the television turned itself on no fewer than twelve times over the course of eight hours.

                        The two other spirits here seem to be linked to the property, and predate the building. I personally saw the headless man dressed in gray, and when we had a psychic visit the property, he told us that the man in gray spends most of his time on the lobby staircase, which is where I saw him, simply observing, although he is also attracted to a room upstairs. The headless man indicated to the psychic that his body lies beneath what is now our rear staircase.

                        The woman in the white dress is sometimes observed descending the lobby staircase, and like the headless man, she descends to the landing and vanishes. The psychic says she indicated to him that her world is constrained to the physical boundaries of the building she died in, and that she may have died in a fire.

                        Of the people who work here or have worked here, I can think of at least seven who have witnessed activity here, including the boss. It is a daily occurrence to see something out of the corner of your eye, usually shadowy people in the halls or on the stairs. One clerk has heard heavy footsteps on the stairs when no one's there, and one girl who used to work here was so terrified by the woman in white that rather than pass the stairs to get back behind the front desk, she climbed over the counter instead.

                        Of the seven hotels at this particular interstate exit, ours isn't the only one haunted. One has a room that has a very active poltergeist. Another has something that turns down beds, or lies on freshly-made beds on the top floor. Another, and it's one of the four that we own, has at least one ghost, a woman, who seems to date from a plane that crashed where the hotel now stands, more than thirty years ago. Scared the hell out of the Terminix guy.
                        Drive it like it's a county car.

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                        • #27
                          Wow, I feel kinda left out. I've been told by my late fiancee ghosts seem to actively avoid me for some reason. Personally, I think I'm too grounded in this world for them to be comfortable around me. The reasons for that are a whole different topic I won't get into, though.

                          There is one incident that happened to me, back during my junior year of highschool, and before I got really grounded. I was doing Technical Theater, which is the fancy name for stage-hands and sound/light crew, and working lights for our spring musical. I had to go up into the catwalks through the back entrance, which is a staircase that also has a landing for the lighting control booth, to adjust something. On the way back down, I got this incredible feeling that something nasty was right behind me, and that I needed to get the hell out of there, NOW! I tore ass back down to where the rest of the lighting crew was, even jumping half a flight of steps to get out of there quicker. If I ever visited, even now, you wouldn't be able to PAY me to go back up there, it was that terrifying.
                          ...WHY DO YOU TEMPT WHAT LITTLE FAITH IN HUMANITY I HAVE!?! -- Kalga
                          And I want a pony for Christmas but neither of us is getting what we want OK! What you are asking is impossible. -- Wicked Lexi

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                          • #28
                            Quoth wagegoth View Post
                            I'll tell the other story another day.
                            Its another day, can we have another story??


                            Sphinx - *waiting patiently*
                            "I want to be a mongoose. Can I be a mongoose dog?"

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                            • #29
                              Quoth Sphinx View Post
                              Its another day, can we have another story??


                              Sphinx - *waiting patiently*
                              Those are my two stories. I just cut and pasted from my blog, which is why they're a bit jumbled.

                              But I can add to the hotel stories. My friend, referred to as RR in the stories, went to Seattle with a friend. They stayed at a spa, but ending up spending one night at a hotel in Seattle, before their flight back.

                              It turned out that the room was haunted. A glittery cloud appeared and approached the two women. They ended up cowering on one bed. They didn't have matches or a candle or any herbs with them. They ended up getting another room that same night. It was interesting to her that the night desk clerk did not seem at all surprised at their request to move out of that room.

                              The next day, they asked the day desk clerk about it. Turns out there are two stories about ghosts in that hotel: the glittery cloud is apparently related to a man who died in that room, and the other is two children who are believed to have died in a fire many years ago in the same hotel. They are often seen running down a hallway and through the lobby and then disappearing.

                              I had loaned RR a book that is an international directory to haunted places. When I got it back, she had stuck in a post-it about the hotel, since it wasn't listed.
                              Labor boards have info on local laws for free
                              HR believes the first person in the door
                              Learn how to go over whackamole bosses' heads safely
                              Document everything
                              CS proves Dunning-Kruger effect

                              Comment


                              • #30
                                I've heard that there are several places in SW PA that are haunted.

                                There's an area near Hahn Bethel Park (outside of Pittsburgh) that has seen some strange events over the years. Several people have been killed, either in auto accidents, or other means. I'm not sure why, but there's something sinister about that area.

                                Another interesting area involves some former Pennsylvania Railroad tunnels. The first one is Piney Fork Tunnel, known locallly as "Greenman's Tunnel." This tunnel originally carried the Pennsylvania RR's Peter's Creek Branch under the old Baltimore & Ohio W&P subdivision (now part of CSX). Supposedly, a power company worker was repairing lines on the hillside atop the tunnel. As he was working, he somehow got electrocuted causing his skin to turn green. Legend has it that if you drive into the tunnel (no tracks in there as the line was abandoned in 1962), shut your car off and call for Greenman, he'll show up. If he touches your car, good luck in getting it started again.

                                However, I've also been told that since the tunnel is now used for road salt storage, the hauntings have stopped. Ghosts don't like salt.

                                As if that wasn't enough, the adjacent auto tunnel is haunted too. It's called "Corvette Tunnel." The story goes that some kids were drag racing in the 1960s...with predictable results. One of them didn't make the corner coming out of the tunnel and was killed. Supposedly, if you drive in there at night and shut your car off...you can see the lights and hear sounds of the doomed car. This is something I'd *never* do. It has nothing to do with ghosts--I'm not afraid, but I *really* don't want my car to get hit while parked in a narrow tunnel.
                                Aerodynamics are for people who can't build engines. --Enzo Ferrari

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