My haunted office - Tell me your ghost story

[MMtwo]

I work in an old house converted to an office. Last August my co-workers moved to another building. This left me alone in the building. My office is in the basement. I was perfectly fine with this, I prefer to work without distraction. Before everyone moved out, I never noticed anything odd or any strange noises.

A few days after everyone left, I heard footsteps and what sounded like boxes sliding across the floor. I stopped what I was doing and assumed co-workers had dropped in to work on old files. Then I realized I had not heard the alarm that signals an open door. I sat and listened to footsteps and shuffling noises for about 10 minutes. I went outside and checked the parking lot - no one around. Went upstairs and no one was there.

I had a couple more similar experiences over the next few months.

Two weeks ago I was out of the office and two co-workers came by to look at security tapes. They sat down stairs and heard footsteps. The maintenance man went upstairs to let whoever was in the file room know they were leaving and to check the alarm.

No one was upstairs.

This time both of them heard it. I felt somehow vindicated. Other people have reported laughing and voices.

Things that make you go "Hmmmmmm". True story here.

Do you have any stories of strange occurrences?

 

[Dancing Fire]

Are you scare?

 

[MMtwo]

Most of the time not scared. A couple of times as I was trying to work and heard the shuffling noises it was a little unnerving. I figure that means break time and I run down the block to pick up a cup of coffee. I don't get any sense of danger or foreboding though.

My boss asked me if it could be raccoons or something. I said only if they are wearing shoes. It's pretty definite.

 

[arkieb1]

Can you find out the history of the building or site? Was there a previous office or building there that burned down, a house there decades ago where someone could have died before your building or that could have burned down, could someone have committed suicide or had a heart attack and died there.

Does it seem like a man or have you heard multiple odd voices like a number of people or a family?

 

[YadaYadaYada]

When we first moved into our house 12 years ago, my husband and I were sitting in the back room and saw a woman walk across the hallway. No doubt we both saw her. She becomes active when we talk about moving. There was a point when we were prepping the house to put it on the market and I was painting the hallway. My husband had left to go to Home Depot so I was alone in the house painting away when all of a sudden the light went out. No reason for it and the fuse wasn't tripped there was no explanation.

There have been other happenings like smelling perfume in a certain spot, blinds swinging in an otherwise empty room with the windows closed. My husband was showering one time and the lights flickered, he thought I was messing with the light switch so he yelled and the light went totally out.

Over Easter this year we had finished dinner and my youngest son who is 21 months kept turning around in his high chair like he was afraid of something, he would not go near the couch. So I walked in the room and stood there and our big dog ran toward me barking like he does when he gets protective when my husband and I are play fighting. Someone was in the room, the dog could see it and my son could see it.

When we first moved in we found a grave marker for a young child that was a girl in the shed. I don't know if that is at all connected but it's still in there. Our house is not especially old, no idea if anyone ever died in the house and it will remain a mystery since the husband doesn't want to know!

 

[MMtwo]

Can you find out the history of the building or site? Was there a previous office or building there that burned down, a house there decades ago where someone could have died before your building or that could have burned down, could someone have committed suicide or had a heart attack and died there.

Does it seem like a man or have you heard multiple odd voices like a number of people or a family?

Hi arkieb1,

My office is across the street from the oldest cemetery in town. We have a part time secretary that fills in now and then and knows everyone and knew the families that lived there. She didn't know of any bad things that happened in the house.

I have never heard the voices that my co-workers have heard. The lady who said she heard voices had an office upstairs and said they sounded like low conversations between two people. Sometimes she heard laughing. I'll ask her if the voices sounded male or female.

Oh, that reminds me, I did hear beautiful happy whistling once..again, no one downstairs.

 

[MMtwo]

When we first moved into our house 12 years ago, my husband and I were sitting in the back room and saw a woman walk across the hallway. No doubt we both saw her. She becomes active when we talk about moving. There was a point when we were prepping the house to put it on the market and I was painting the hallway. My husband had left to go to Home Depot so I was alone in the house painting away when all of a sudden the light went out. No reason for it and the fuse wasn't tripped there was no explanation.

There have been other happenings like smelling perfume in a certain spot, blinds swinging in an otherwise empty room with the windows closed. My husband was showering one time and the lights flickered, he thought I was messing with the light switch so he yelled and the light went totally out.

Over Easter this year we had finished dinner and my youngest son who is 21 months kept turning around in his high chair like he was afraid of something, he would not go near the couch. So I walked in the room and stood there and our big dog ran toward me barking like he does when he gets protective when my husband and I are play fighting. Someone was in the room, the dog could see it and my son could see it.

When we first moved in we found a grave marker for a young child that was a girl in the shed. I don't know if that is at all connected but it's still in there. Our house is not especially old, no idea if anyone ever died in the house and it will remain a mystery since the husband doesn't want to know!

Wow, those are unsettling! I would be pretty scared if I saw someone. Did she look like a solid person? was she wearing period clothing?

 

[texaskj]

The original building we used to be in downtown was finished in 1920 and added on to a few times. We had huge basements and three floors go over a street. The only place I ever heard people swear there were ghosts was the top floor in the last addition. They never frightened me; I always felt they were watching over me. Some nights I'd be the only person on the entire floor and I would see someone walk by our room out of the corner of my eye. If I ran out to the hall and checked, there was no one. If I called the guard downstairs, he'd answer. And for some reason, whenever I got inside that building, I felt safer than any other place I'd been in my entire life.

 

[arkieb1]

When we first moved into our house 12 years ago, my husband and I were sitting in the back room and saw a woman walk across the hallway. No doubt we both saw her. She becomes active when we talk about moving. There was a point when we were prepping the house to put it on the market and I was painting the hallway. My husband had left to go to Home Depot so I was alone in the house painting away when all of a sudden the light went out. No reason for it and the fuse wasn't tripped there was no explanation.

There have been other happenings like smelling perfume in a certain spot, blinds swinging in an otherwise empty room with the windows closed. My husband was showering one time and the lights flickered, he thought I was messing with the light switch so he yelled and the light went totally out.

Over Easter this year we had finished dinner and my youngest son who is 21 months kept turning around in his high chair like he was afraid of something, he would not go near the couch. So I walked in the room and stood there and our big dog ran toward me barking like he does when he gets protective when my husband and I are play fighting. Someone was in the room, the dog could see it and my son could see it.

When we first moved in we found a grave marker for a young child that was a girl in the shed. I don't know if that is at all connected but it's still in there. Our house is not especially old, no idea if anyone ever died in the house and it will remain a mystery since the husband doesn't want to know!

I dare say it is connected it's probably the mother of the child hanging around the house to be with the ghost of the child, there would be some specific reason why she is there. Small children and animals can sense things that most adults have tuned out of picking up.

As Texaskj points out above most ghosts are not here to upset us they have some sort of unfinished business or reason for being there and if anything they tend to be protective of the families or people they are around, so the reason they might become active if you were prepping to sell the house is the uncertainty of what might happen to the place and who might move in and disturb things they don't want disturbed.

 

[arkieb1]

I want to add I was never a specific believer of ghosts or ESP and have a really practical type brain. Despite this I have a almost Allison DuBois type ability to be able to sense things other people cannot. And have had a number of encounters over the years.

One that sticks out is a really dearly loved Great Aunt of ours died and several days later she appeared one night sitting on the end of my bed, I asked her why she was there and she said she was going around saying goodbye to all the family members before she moved on and she wanted me to tell my Grandmother who is her sister she is O.K. She visited her too but she wanted me to let her know because my Grandmother doesn't sense things to the same degree that I do.

The next day my then 3 year old kept screaming my Grandmother's (his Great Grandmothers) pet name (we have a pet name for her) he only gets to see her about twice a year and he had never talked about her before and he kept saying her name over and over again, so I asked him and he said that she (my Grandmothers pet name) had been there with him talking to him. The next day I asked him if she was there and he said no (my Grandmothers pet name had gone now). I think what happened is my Great Aunt (who he had never really seen before because they had only met each other once when he was a tiny baby far too small to remember) looks like or is physically very very similar to my Grandmother. I believe that my Great Aunt was there with him, for part of a day, the day after I saw her too, and then she left, and he mistook her for his Great Grandmother, that is what I think happened. So I told my mother and my Grandmother that my son saw her and I saw her and she said goodbye to all of us.

 

[YadaYadaYada]

When we first moved into our house 12 years ago, my husband and I were sitting in the back room and saw a woman walk across the hallway. No doubt we both saw her. She becomes active when we talk about moving. There was a point when we were prepping the house to put it on the market and I was painting the hallway. My husband had left to go to Home Depot so I was alone in the house painting away when all of a sudden the light went out. No reason for it and the fuse wasn't tripped there was no explanation.

There have been other happenings like smelling perfume in a certain spot, blinds swinging in an otherwise empty room with the windows closed. My husband was showering one time and the lights flickered, he thought I was messing with the light switch so he yelled and the light went totally out.

Over Easter this year we had finished dinner and my youngest son who is 21 months kept turning around in his high chair like he was afraid of something, he would not go near the couch. So I walked in the room and stood there and our big dog ran toward me barking like he does when he gets protective when my husband and I are play fighting. Someone was in the room, the dog could see it and my son could see it.

When we first moved in we found a grave marker for a young child that was a girl in the shed. I don't know if that is at all connected but it's still in there. Our house is not especially old, no idea if anyone ever died in the house and it will remain a mystery since the husband doesn't want to know!

Wow, those are unsettling! I would be pretty scared if I saw someone. Did she look like a solid person? was she wearing period clothing?

She looked just like a person and she had on a light colored long flowing dress. None of this really bothers me, it does bother the husband to a degree but I think she is pretty harmless in general.

 

[kmarla]

I have had a clairvoyant and clairsentient ability from a young age. I also get premonitions. The ability seems to run very strongly through our native heritage on my maternal side. I see images in different forms. Often they will appear like a movie, where the camera will zoom in and out, pan wide etc. I will see people that are missing, murdered etc. These visions suddenly come to me, I don't seek them out. I can also feel the emotions and sometimes hear the thoughts of the people and it can be very overwhelming. I also see images, or ghosts. Most often they appear like the shape of a human body but composed of millions of tiny lights, but occasionally I will see a very clear person. This can be very frightening to experience, but I am more comfortable with it now.
The most recent experience happened a couple of years ago. I was having a fun day with my best friend in a beautiful little tourist town along the Rideau Canal. We had been there many times before, but this time we went into a store in an old Victorian house that I had never been in before. We were having a look around and were standing near the counter where there was a display of dragonfly garden ornaments. All of a sudden one of the dragonfly figurines went flying from the stand. No one was near enough to cause this but my friend was the closest. We were all startled and the store owner was telling my friend that dragonflies have special meaning and this must be a special message. What they didn't know was that I had suddenly felt the air turn ice cold and the image of a young woman materialized very clearly beside the store owner. She was wearing a floor length dress that was beige and she looked hot and sweaty, like she had been cleaning. She was taller than me and seemed late teens to early twenties. She was smiling and I knew she was related to the dragonfly incident. I didn't hear her say anything. I didn't say anything about the vision then but I asked the store owner what she knew about the history of the house before it was converted to retail. She said that it had been in one family and that they had a young niece or cousin that had lived with them and helped out. This was apparently around the turn of the last century. All this time I'm seeing this young woman that no one else saw. I was becoming more and more cold and uncomfortable so I whispered to my friend that I needed to leave now. The feeling stayed with me a few minutes after we left but I didn't see the image again. My friend never saw or felt anything. Some of my extended family also have this ability, but most are sceptical. DH jokes that it's seizures. It doesn't matter to me. I can't explain it either but I know it's real.

 

[iluvshinythings]

I used to not really believe in ghosts but I've had one encounter that changed my mind. I've used the same dermatologist for years. A few years ago she moved her practice from an office building to an old house that had been converted from a residence to an insurance agency and then sold to the dermatologist. The building is divided into two sections. The west side is where the estheticians do facials and laser treatments. The east side is where the doctor sees patients.

I had seen the doctor several times and never noticed anything strange but the first time I had a laser treatment I had the worst feeling. I tend to have anxiety so I thought that was my problem. Every time I went in the laser treatment room I just felt extremely anxious and cold and clammy. The feeling of anxiety and dread would increase every time the laser tech left the room and I wondered if there was a two way mirror or camera because I felt like I was being watched. I bought a series of treatments (from the doctor before the first session) and thought I'd eventually get over it but never did. I really thought I was having some kind of crazy reaction to the treatments or the laser tech.

Then a few days before my wedding I got a facial and set of eyelash extensions in another room. Same terrible clammy feeling as the laser room. While I was talking to the esthetician (different than the laser tech), she mentioned that she had given her notice and was leaving. She told me that she couldn't shake the feeling of dread she felt every day coming to work and that she thought it was because of the ghost. I was like "ghost, what ghost?" She said that when the office was a residence it was owned by a doctor and that the west wing was an addition to the house where he saw his patients and where he had later committed suicide. She told me the staff never saw or heard anything strange but many patients had complained about not feeling well in those treatment rooms.

I still see the esthetician at her new office for facials and laser treatments and everything is great. I don't have any anxiety when I see her. I still see the doctor on the east side of the building and it's all good. I won't ever go to the west side of that office again.

 

[partgypsy]

I'm going to post my post from the thread "would you buy a haunted house" rather than repeat myself

I don't believe in ghosts, but when we first bought our house, both me, my husband and our oldest daughter experienced at different times the same experiences, that of hearing and feeling someone walking around in the front left room. The first time it happened to me I froze in fear, but then calmed myself down thinking someone was walking on porch right outside room, but then looked, no one there. The fact that all 3 of us experienced it at different times was weird, but we thought to ourselves, maybe it is some weird trick with the way sound carries in our house? But we never found an explanation, and it went away (we don't hear it anymore).
Our house used to be a university rental so a number of people have lived there (and supposed Jane Fonda slept there!). One time during Alumni weekend someone knocked on our door and started to tell my husband about the place, and said one of the people who lived there died (I don't know if shortly after or in the house) and my husband said, let me guess what room he had. He guessed right.

When our daughter experienced it she was very little, like 2 or 3 and talked about a man being in the room with her, which first freaked us out.
ps our house is old, built 1925-1930 and we don't know the entire history of the house.