By Taylor Pope & Julio Velela
Have you ever stayed late at the office? The cleaning crew had finished for the night, and most of the lights turned off with just a few florescent bulbs flickering. You look out the window from your desk and see nothing but darkness. Typically, your workplace shouldn’t creep you out, but what if your building is known for its “alleged” paranormal activity? Would you stay late to finish that project?
In the spirit of October and with Halloween just around the corner, the CDI team wanted to add to the boo-tastic season with a few stories of haunted workplaces around North America. Trick or treat yourselves to some candy and enjoy our list of spooky stories!
Now, let’s check out these wicked workplaces.
Ghost Girl in Fargo, North Dakota
Screenshot of little ghost girl caught on camera, YouTube.
Late at night, in the office of Flint Group in Fargo, North Dakota, staff members have been visited by a few ghostly companions who roam their halls. Employees that work after hours have spoken of seeing people drifting around the office. One of those characters is a little girl that can be seen and heard calling for her mama. Sure, their stories might be hard to believe, but the little girl has supposedly been caught on camera. Above is a screenshot of the footage claimed to be the girl who wanders the office late at night, but she is not the only one.
Due to all the paranormal activity, a psychic medium was recruited. The psychic focused on investigating the three spirits commonly seen: the little girl, a tall man in a coat, and a dog. After her investigation, she believed that the girl was about seven years old and that the tall man in the coat is the dog's owner.
It has been a while since Flint Group reported a ghost sighting, so who knows if the spirits are still active. However, it would be safe to say I’m sure staff members draw straws for who must stay late to finish assignments.
The Lawless Spirits in New Mexico
Having to get a lawyer or fighting your case in a courtroom can be a stressful situation. Can you imagine dealing with those very same lawyers and courtrooms that just so happen to also host a few ghostly busybodies?
A deputy district attorney from New Mexico, Gloria McCary, says her former office was haunted. In an interview with Forbes, she retold stories of hearing voices and noises that no one could explain. Her colleagues would hear papers being shuffled around at night, the sound of forceful clicking as if someone was typing on a keyboard, and chairs shifting in other rooms.
Oddly enough, Gloria was not scared of these accounts at first. Instead, she was intrigued by all the haunting encounters everyone in the office was experiencing. However, even the bravest among us have a limit. After having to deal with those creepy sounds for so long, Gloria decided to start taking her work home instead of staying late with the busy ghosts. The law firm eventually relocated to a different office which we’re sure all employees appreciated.
Haunted Basement in Chicago, Illinois
Photo source: Wikipedia
Imagine this – you’ve just got hired as a postal worker with great benefits and great hours. You love getting to interact with people all day, but while chatting with a customer they tell you a story. A story about the very building you work in and its bloody history. Would you work inside a building where a serial killer was known to murder all their victims? What if the building was knocked down and a new structure was built over the rubble? If you look to our next haunted workplace as an example, even a demolition cannot expel ghosts who were met by a horrifying and tragic end.
Located near the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, Illinois, a man owned a mixed-use building full of hidden chambers, secret passages, and trap doors. That building would later be known as the "Murder Castle." That is the site where the owner and serial killer, H.H. Holmes, murdered approximately 27 people. Two years after Holmes was arrested in 1895, the structure caught fire, and the building stayed vacant for 40 years.
The building was later demolished, and in its place, the Englewood Post Office was built. According to the postal workers that work there, the basement is full of horrors. You can hear disembodied voices and footsteps echoing from below. Workers have also said to have seen chairs move all on their own. Very few are surprised this location would be the site of many accounts of ghostly activity considering the actions of H.H Holmes. For example, his use of trapped doors to transport his victims to the basement to carry out gruesome acts was sure to leave behind the spirits of some -understandingly- very angry victims.
Haunted Toy Store in Sunnyvale, California
In the 1970s, the Toy R Us franchise store was expanding into California. One of the buildings that they chose to lease was located in a town called Sunnyvale. Little did they know that the land on which the building was built had a long history of unfortunate deaths.
Martin and Mary Murphy, a married couple, were one of the first pioneers to California through the Sierra Nevadas. In the 1840s, they eventually settled in the bay area and built a ranch in present-day Sunnyvale. They were a very influential family, but unfortunately, many members of their family passed away at young ages. All of which was said to have been “accidental” or caused by disease. Those poor young souls are the ones that supposedly still haunt the grounds to this day.
Many Toys R Us employees reported seeing faucets in the bathroom turn themselves on, toys move down the aisles, and a ghostly fog appeared in the store. The paranormal activity grabbed the attention of a TV program to run a special covering the history of the store location and the terrifying experiences that the staff endured.
You might be glad to hear the toy store, which gained much fame for the ghosts that roamed their aisles, is no longer in business. Another company has now found the courage to call the building their new home. REI has announced that they are relocating their Mountain View, California store to Sunnyvale in the same building as the haunted Toy R Us. Time will tell if the REI employees are met by those same ghostly spirits.
We hope you liked hearing about these haunted workplaces, and feel free to share this list with your team and friends.
From your CDI team here, we’ll be witch-ing you a Happy Halloween!
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