People Who Work Alone Describe Their Creepiest Experiences On The Job
- 15,194 VOTES
Something Set Off The Morgue Freezer Alarm
From Redditor /u/dedmedstud:
I worked as an assistant in a morgue. As a med student, I got to open and study the bodies that people donated to the university. All the bodies were stored in a giant walk-in freezer. Also, the morgue had a motion sensor system inside the freezer, so if you get [stuck] inside, an alarm would activate and someone would come to help you.
One time I was working alone because my teacher was doing some paperwork in his office that was in an adjacent building. I heard a lot of noise but I thought it was my teacher in the other building or something like that.
When suddenly the f*cking alarm goes off, scaring the sh*t out of me.
In that moment I was like "Sh*t, the teacher is [stuck] inside the freezer."
And when I was running to the freezer, my teacher grabbed my arm and told me "I thought you were inside the freezer."
In that moment we stayed there staring at the door until he stopped the alarm and opened the door. (I was behind him with a f*cking broom, waiting for the worst)
When he opened the freezer we didn't find anything that could activate the motion sensor, there wasn't anybody, at least not alive. We decided that it was enough for the day and we left the morgue early.
- 23,825 VOTES
A Toy Store Worker Freaked Out When The Local Ghost Responded To His Wager
From Redditor /u/KINGCOOVER:
My dad worked at the haunted Toys R Us in Sunnyvale CA. He worked as a night watchman back in the day to pay for school. Cool gig, got to sit around and study while being paid for doing next to nothing. Learned to juggle and play guitar too.
Weird stuff happened there all the time. Objects would fall off shelves as you walked past them, lights flickered on-and-off from time to time, noises from the other side of the hall, stuff like that.
So there he was in a big mostly dark store, all by himself, thinking about the ghost. He said aloud, "if there is a ghost here, then that balloon, the red one in the middle of the roof will pop." Right as he finished the sentence, the balloon burst. Suffice to say he turned on all the lights in the building and got as close to a door as he could for the rest of the shift.
- 33,430 VOTES
The Ghost Of A Former Patient Haunted An Adolescent Rehab Center
From Redditor /u/WE_Coyote73:
I worked overnights in an adolescent RTC for a short time. About a week into the job I was told about "Amanda." Amanda was a resident from around 10 years prior who managed to hang herself in the shower. According to my co-workers she would sometimes make appearances at night in the form of making a whimpering sound in the supply room or on very rare occasions she would actually appear in the corner of the hallway nearest her old room. I blew off the story, thinking they were just messing with the new guy until...
One night, about two months later, I was doing rounds while my partner took a smoke break. I was checking the kids were asleep when I saw a girl sitting in the corner of the hallway with her arms around knees, which were pulled up to her chin, something about her body language told me she was really sad. I started to approach her but heard a noise from behind me, I checked to find nothing awry and when I looked back to the corner the girl was gone.
When my coworker returned from his smoke-break I told him what I saw and he said "Yep, that's Amanda."
- 42,946 VOTES
A College Student Was Freaked Out By An Isolated Computer Lab
From Redditor /u/Wess_is_Bestin:
So my major has a computer lab that is two stories underground. I have spent countless hours using these computers and I have spent nights down in what us students call "the dungeon." One night, around 2 AM, I went down the hall to go get some water. The lights use motion sensors.
As I was filling my water bottle, the last light turned on at the end of the hall. So there was this dark gap between me and this last light way down the hall. I was mildly creeped out, but then I saw something move in the darkness between me and the light. I proceeded to nope my way home promptly.
- 52,393 VOTES
A Movie Theater Night Janitor Felt Like He Was Being Watched
From Redditor /u/nasdarovye:
Used to be a night janitor in a movie theater. We would go in at 4 AM and clean until the doors opened at 11 AM. To save time (and our jobs) we would sometimes come in around the time the last movies were finishing and just sleep in one of the empty theaters, making sure we would be there when the shift started.
Our basic MO was to use electric leaf blowers up and down the aisles of each theater, blowing popcorn and trash all the way to the bottom, then cleaning the seats up manually for anything gross or larger debris. This was expedient, but it was very loud, so it was easy to lose yourself in the work.
Of course, the lights were on in the theaters to better assist in the cleaning, and usually, we were the only ones there at the time, so whenever something strange happened we would chalk it up to the other guy.
There was one "standing rule" though, that we all followed to the letter: No one in the projection booth. There was no reason to go up there - we didn't clean it, all our supplies were downstairs, and most of all, it was haunted.
There is a phenomenon that happens with theaters and projection booths, no matter what, you always feel like you're being watched.
When you're walking around deaf (from the sound of the blowers) in an empty movie theater, and you happen to glance up at the booth, and there is unmistakably someone standing there watching you, you will sh*t your pants. Especially when you go out into the hallway and find the other guy in his theater working. Especially when you both go to either end of the building to the two exits of the booth, and "trap" whoever it was up there and there is no one there.
We just chose not to f*ck with it.
- 62,016 VOTES
A Missionary Worker Was Scared As Witch Doctors Passed By
From Redditor /u/SunsetDreams1111:
I was working in the villages of Malawi, Africa, and came to one community very isolated and remote. The children stopped going to school because these guys were terrorizing them. They were witch doctors and if caught they’d take the kids into the cemetery and do crazy things. They also terrorized the widows and others in the community.
When they told me the story, I thought they might be exaggerating a bit. I didn’t ever feel scared when I was in the villages and since they are cut off from technology, I thought maybe it was just a bit of folklore passed away to create fear.
Then one day I was sitting on a banana fibers mat with a widow and drinking tea. I couldn’t speak the tribal language, so we just smiled and drank together in silence and peace. All of the sudden I heard like this grunting sound. An electric bolt of fear crept down my body. I can’t even explain how intense this fear was. It’s like I just froze and couldn’t even turn around. I just FELT evil and darkness around me.
Anyway, these witch doctors surrounded us for awhile and just grunted and hissed and made these animal noises. We didn’t move an inch. We never turned around. They were so close and literally right behind us, and all I could think the entire time was I’d feel a spear in my neck any second.
After awhile they left and eventually my transportation arrived. A few other Americans were in other villages and came for my pickup. I remember once I got in the car I couldn’t even speak for awhile what had happened. My words and stories don’t do justice to what I felt that day. I never knew darkness like that existed - but it does.
- 71,735 VOTES
A Student In Alaska Was Nearly Trapped In A Snowstorm
From Redditor /u/OldGreySweater:
Worked as a lab student in Alert, Nunavut (look it up, most northerly inhabited place in the world). I was there for my second term in January, so total darkness. The lab I worked at was an atmospheric lab so it was far from the main base, maybe five km. Around the lab, there were ‘lifelines’ leading to all of our instruments outside.
However, on this particular Wednesday, which was flasking day, it was a little stormy but nothing too serious. Since I was the student I did all of the outside flasking, I loaded up a sleigh with evacuated flasks and would walk about 300m from the lab, open up the flasks, and then walk back to the lab. We then would send them south for analysis.
Since we had to ensure that we got the best samples, we always had to walk into the wind. That means no lifeline. It was coming from a different direction every time. On this Wednesday I had my little headlamp, walked out, and pulled my sleigh into the darkness (the darkest dark). I was a couple hundred meters out and everything went dark. I turned around - the lab was gone, the station was gone, where we parked our truck was gone. I was alone, with only a headlamp and a sleigh of empty glass flasks.
I panicked. I had no radio, no phone (not that they work up there anyway), and no clue where anything was. The wind was strong enough that I couldn’t even find my tracks. I accept my fate and just stay put, heart racing. This was it. This was how I die.
After the longest two minutes of my life, the power comes back on.
- 82,744 VOTES
A Real Estate Photographer Found A Horrifying Scene
From Redditor /u/LifeWithAdd:
I don’t work in extreme seclusion but I can go days without seeing anyone. I do real estate photography so I'm going in and out of strange houses all day, almost always vacant. I’ve had a ton of weird experiences and encounters with squatters, but the creepiest was a badly fire-damaged house I shot.
The owner was a flipper and asked me to go get before photos. Before he hung up he mentioned the previous owner killed herself in the house during the fire. I got there and the house was severely burned and has no electricity, so the only light was my flashlight. I walked into the bathroom and immediately knew where and how this woman killed herself.
Here are the photos of what I saw.
- 91,636 VOTES
They Saw A Man Wearing A 'Scream' Mask At The Back Door
From Redditor /u/Phantom_61:
Worked overnight as a master control operator in my youth.
One night, around 3 AM, I catch sight of the camera we have aimed at the back door, and there’s someone standing there wearing a Scream mask staring at the camera and not moving.
I go to the back door (which is magnetically sealed and deadbolt-ed for overnight, the door is next to impossible to force open) and look out the peephole and there’s no one there.
Head back to control and see them walk back into frame, wave at the camera, and then walk away.
Called the cops. They found nothing and the camera doesn't record - it's live feed only.
- 101,483 VOTES
A Nature Photographer Possibly Heard A Murder
From Redditor /u/USMC_MissileMan:
I was photographing a waterfall in a deep basin. I was the only one in the basin. I was alone from 6 PM - 10:30 PM. The trail that comes in was right up against a rock face that went straight up and over 400 feet high. When I was heading back up there were bare wet human footprints up the stones of the trail. I got to a spot where I see muddy footprints leading into the brush.
A few moments later I heard a blood-curdling scream from the same bushes. The sound to me sounded like a mountain lion. They are common in the area. I ran faster than I’ve ever run before. I called rangers to my mile marker and I’ve checked back since then. No missing persons reports have been filed, nor was anyone’s car in that area that night. Easily one of the scariest experiences I’ve had.
- 111,285 VOTES
They Found Out Later The Car Dealership Was Actually Haunted
From Redditor /u/SpicyCryptoGuy:
This happened a few years ago when I was working at a car dealership.
Our business had just moved into a new lot down the road and the cars were parked in an open-air parking garage. One way in and one way out with one set of stairs which was right by the entrance. So I'm hanging out at the entrance and I hear a car door slam. I found it strange since no cars had driven in and no one had gone up the stairs. So I start walking up the stairs and I hear another door slam shut. I'm thinking 'WTF is happening?' Next day I tell my coworkers what happened and they all think I'm just delusional.
Fast forward a week later, I had to travel down the road to another dealership to pick up some parts. The dealership I went to had just moved out from where my company had moved in. I walk down to the parts department and grab my part. As I'm walking away, the guy behind the counter asks if I've worked the night shift yet at our new place. I told him I had and he quickly responded with "Be safe, that place is haunted."
I immediately got goosebumps and proceeded to tell him what I had experienced just a week prior. He said it was normal and you get used to it.
Freaked me the f*ck out.
- 121,105 VOTES
An Overnight Worker Heard Disembodied Singing
From Redditor /u/bananabugs:
Worked overnights at two different 24-hr residential treatment centers for teens. AKA: poltergeist soup.
We (staff and clients) would see and hear things/people during the middle of the night, almost every night. I remember when I worked at a drug and alcohol rehab facility; it used to be a nunnery attached to a church. I used to hear women singing through our speaker that communicated with our doorbell for visiting hours. I could see through the window of the door from where I would be sitting, and there was never anything there.
I have a bunch more, those places were full of weird sh*t.
- 131,260 VOTES
A Morbid MP3 Selection Arrived On This Worker's iPod
From Redditor /u/Cloverleaf66:
Worked alone evenings cleaning in a building by myself. Had been there about three years by this time...
I had on my headphones in the elevator and the song I was listening to abruptly stopped partway through, then "Stairway to Heaven" started to play. I didn’t even have "Stairway to Heaven on my MP3 player. It had never been on my MP3 player.
- 141,102 VOTES
An Antarctic Worker Ran Afoul Of Some Locals
From Redditor /u/lordlod:
I was working in Antarctica at a station with an elephant seal mating ground. I thought I had left something in a shipping container by the docks, next to the elephant seals. Mindful of my safety and being a bit lazy, I grabbed a ute (utility vehicle) and drove down there at midnight.
I parked and left the vehicle running with the lights on. As soon as I got out I realized it was seriously dark. No moon, no building lights, can't see your hand in front of your face dark. I hear heavy breathing coming from all around me, and I can hear the two-ton b*stards starting to move.
Whatever I forgot waited until the next day.
- 151,149 VOTES
A Former Madhouse Was Invaded By Late-Night Trespassers
From Redditor /u/warumbel:
I have a workspace in an old former madhouse, built by monks, which had been turned into a hospital for SS personnel in WWII. Lots of spooky history. A huge building with long hallways and a stern 1920's architecture. Brick archways, ugly sculptures of [long-gone] monks.
I usually work late, until 3 in the morning, and I am usually the last person to leave the building. One night in winter, I locked my room and went to the exit. All the lights were off and the wind was howling. Suddenly I heard the sound of running footsteps in the distance. Lots of running footsteps. Then it was quiet again. I went down some stairs, and there I saw little red lights blinking on the other side of a long dark hallway, just for a moment. Then they were gone.
I was pretty freaked out at this point; I walked faster in the direction of the exit. Then I heard those running footsteps again! I turned a corner and suddenly a bunch of kids was screaming in my face. Almost had a heart attack.
Turned out the kids were playing laser tag - they borrowed the keys to the building from one of their parents. They had these laser guns with red lights to shoot each other with and were chasing each other through the dark building. They thought the building was deserted and almost sh*t themselves when this big guy in a trench coat suddenly appeared in front of them.
- 161,044 VOTES
An Office Worker Locked Themselves In When An Intruder Appeared
From Redditor /u/sleepytimeghee:
I work in a building that is high security because we have a lot of expensive equipment. If you want to get to my office you have to walk through four doors that require keycard access. It's very quiet and sterile. White Walls, nobody around, very little furniture, gray floors, open ceiling so you can see the ducts. Sounds echo here.
I was working alone and noticed that there was a guy in the building. He was wearing the same shirt that maintenance wears, but it was weird because it was really late at night on a Saturday. He was also wearing jeans, and the maintenance people always wear black pants. He kind of gave me the creeps so I closed my office door and stayed there. I could hear the echo of him walking back-and-forth for a while. He tried the handle on my office door twice. I heard the beep of him try to open my office door with a keycard twice.
It turns out that he didn't work there. He is the grown son of one of the workers and was walking around the building trying to steal stuff, but his dad's keycard won't open any offices because it's a handyman card with limited access (handymen have to make appointments and you have to let them in, unlike cleaning people or the techs maintaining the servers who can open any door). He got caught on camera and security checked to see whose card had tried to open the doors. The guy [got] a fine for trespassing and his dad got fired.
- 17874 VOTES
A Janitor Learned He Had A Guest
From Redditor /u/stapletowny:
I used to work as a night janitor at a student union. Skirting tables for events was part of the gig. I was scanning my floor for what needed to be done that night and went into a room annex. Long thin room with one wall entirely made of glass facing the river.
I approach a skirted table that's against the glass wall and hear snoring. Sounds funny though. I think it's on my radio. Assume someone fell asleep at work and rolled on the talk button. Standing there for a few seconds trying to figure it out, I realize there's a homeless man sleeping under the table. His snoring was climbing the glass window and bouncing off the ceiling that's why I couldn't figure out where the sound was coming from.
If you've ever thought you were completely alone only to find out you're within arms distance from another a person, your body becomes one big goosebump and your butthole puckers tighter than a dolphin's. It was freaky.
- 18765 VOTES
A Rogue Pager Went Off Repeatedly Despite Being Unplugged
From Redditor /u/anewatcher:
I work nights in a large warehouse-like store. It's just me and two others in the store at any given time. We used to have buttons all over the store that would page for help for our customers. I've been working at this location for five years and the supervisor for three of those years.
Once a year we will have one go off, and these things are not plugged in at all. The owners removed from the system in my first three weeks. They still go off sometimes.
- 19826 VOTES
A Greenhouse Worker Was Spooked After Hours Of Listening To True Crime Podcasts
From Redditor /u/makenananana:
To start off: I love listening to true crime podcasts. This summer I worked (by myself) in a greenhouse at my university that was on the top (9th) floor of this building. To even get into the building, you need card access, but to use the elevator you need card access and a key.
Over the summer, almost zero people were ever on campus, and especially not on this floor or even in the building for that matter. After probably six hours of working alone on the top floor of this building and listening to creepy murder stories, I was pushing my cart to the elevator (a massive industrial freight elevator, that no one else uses), and I scanned my card and waited for the elevator to reach my floor. I could hear it coming, and it was taking a while so I was still listening to this podcast about some serial killer.
Once it was finally on the 9th floor, I got ready to open the outer-door and happened to peer into the little window and see something inside staring at me through the window. I screamed and jumped back probably two feet before I realized it was just another research student coming up to use the greenhouse. Being alone for six hours and only hearing scary stories of people getting killed really messes with your nerves.
- 20881 VOTES
Security Heard Violent Screaming Late At Night
From Redditor /u/TenebraeSoul:
I used to work overnight as a dispatcher/system monitoring most days we had two people per shift. Pretty much the only reason we wouldn't would be if someone was sick or something.
Most nights were completely uneventful and I basically did nothing for eight hours. One night around 1 AM I hear screaming like some girl is getting murdered. My co-worker and I both start checking cameras: nothing. I grab my radio and start running through the building to find this girl. I run down to the first floor before I realize it's coming for the back parking lot.
I exit the building expecting to have to fight someone with a knife or see a rape or some sh*t. What I actually find is a girl alone in her car just screaming and crying. I find out she "just wanted to vent" and "was seriously okay" she thought no one would be in the office park at 1 AM. I promptly tell her to knock it off as it was absolutely terrifyingly and to please leave.
So not really that scary/creepy/strange at the end of it all but it was absolutely the worst two minutes of my life as I was trying to find the screaming.
- 21655 VOTES
A Late-Night Professional Heard Sounds Coming From Upstairs
From Redditor /u/LeJack37:
I've been working in my trade for about 20 years. It can be difficult to focus when all the young bucks are asking you questions and blaring terrible music, so I tend to start work when everyone else leaves for the night. I started hearing sounds upstairs like people talking/walking/opening doors. I dismissed it as my imagination for a few days, but it got to be too much to ignore, so I started investigating when I would hear things.
Never found anything, thought I was going crazy though. Turns out, one of the guys that lived near the shop made a hide-y hole nest up in the attic to hide from his girlfriend like some kinda dumb*ss phantom of the opera.
