Unusual things tend to happen when the sun goes down or the lights are off. But one thing’s for sure, “everything that happens in the dark will definitely come to light” or be revealed on surveillance cameras.
The following Ask Redditors who work the grave shift share the odd, creepy, unbelievable things they’ve seen while on the job.
Find the original threads at the end of the article.
I work at this crappy local fast food joint which I won’t name. Anyway one night, me and ONE other guy had to run the whole damn place because the manager couldn’t be bothered to do his job.
I don’t get scared easily but it gets spooky at work when it gets late because I’ve got to run to the dumpster and back. Then this jerk that I work with starts making up some story about some serial killer, which ordinarily wouldn’t bother me but it was late. Then it goes from bad to worse.
The lights on the inside reflecting off the glass wouldn’t let us see out very far but we can hear a guy scraping at the door. I turn and make eye contact and his eyes look like dinner plates. He kinda squeaks out a sentence. All I could make out sounded something like “The Hash Slinging Slasher”.
tacobell243
I am a nurse who works in a nursing home and one day I was working a 10pm to 6am shift. This one particularly feisty elderly lady would always tell me that she hated me and was going to haunt me.
Well for an entire week after she died her call light kept going off when the room was unoccupied. It freaked me the heck out. It had never done it before and had no signs of being tampered with.
PrincessShelbyy
My brother and I were driving through Montana in the middle of the night and got held up near Bozeman because a semi-truck had taken out a passenger van with 6 or 7 people in it.
We only have that estimation because we both sat mute while we watched… parts being taken out of the van. It just so happened the accident was SECONDS old when we got to it. A truck driving the opposite direction flashed us with alarming “SLOW DOWN NOW” frequency and we did. The driver of the semi was physically fine but the police were interviewing him parked on the shoulder next to us and we could hear him as he wailed, sobbed and apologized.
We were watching the emergency medical technician crew pull a head attached to a neck and part of an arm while the driver started begging the police for forgiveness.
We sat there for five hours.
The police explained to us (being close up and getting out to smoke after awhile) that it was in no way the semi driver’s fault.
It’s on my top 5 things I would like to un-remember. Arms and legs all over the place.
oogmar
I used to work in a hospital (in the Information Technology department) and we did a number of overnight rollouts, as well as on call work and responses when issues occurred overnight. Many weird things happened or appeared to happen.
The thing that struck me as oddest, was when I saw the coroner running at full speed down the corridor, in the opposite direction, towards the morgue. This guy, an older guy in his 50s or so was running at full speed! I had never seen him move above an amble before, but this time he was really going for it. As he got close to me he yelled “Out of the way – I got another live one!”
I am not sure what was more disturbing, the fact that he was dealing with what I could only assume was a dead body that now appeared to be alive, or the fact he said “another.”
TheJooce
Around 12 years ago I was working security at a small company’s headquarters in New York City. My partner for the night had called in sick, so I had to work from 12 am to 6am all by my lonesome. Now normally, this wouldn’t be a problem, I just had to sit in the back room, watch some cameras and occasionally head out for a sweep – there was nothing to it right?
Well as it turns out, one of the employees had stayed in the building after hours and had managed to avoid my co-worker’s sweep from the previous shift. I first noticed a movement in my peripheral vision on one of the screens and then again a few minutes later. This was odd because I was used to quiet nights in this particular building.
I was a little scared when I headed out for my sweep, but it was my job, so I grabbed my flashlight and headed out to begin. I had to start the sweep in one big hallway and right as I entered, I saw a flash of movement at the end of it. At this point, I was sufficiently freaked out. I stood frozen for a minute or so, looking into the semi-darkness and I was unsure of what to do.
The decision was taken out of my hands, however, as I heard a gunshot resound down the hallway. In what was the scariest moment of my life, I slowly walked down that hallway to investigate.
I reached the end and saw to my left that the President’s office light was on. Slowly, I approached the door and creaked it open, scared crippled. What I saw will forever haunt me. The man had taken a seat in the president’s chair, and shot himself in the head with a pistol, splattering blood and brains all over the floor and the wall.
Apparently this guy was having problems at home and because the president was supposedly a total jerk to him, he decided to off himself and scare the crap out of the president at the same time. In any case, I threw up a few times and called the police. I got the next two weeks off and I still have nightmares about it sometimes.
guh_graves
1. A sex worker (I know who it was, we were not acquainted I just know the person) took a crap, I repeat, took a crap in the corner of the store. The nightshift guy ignored it for the entire shift (4 to 6 hours) and I got to clean it up when I showed up. It was totally worth my $9.50 per hour
2. Better time. I was working the night shift by myself and it was late (2-3 am) so I start to clean eventually getting to the bathrooms – at this point no one’s been in the store for maybe two hours and not in washroom for 3 or more. I walk in to most horrible smell. So, I flip the lights on and poop everywhere, in the sink, in the urinal, on the toilet seat, smeared on walls. I wish I was making a joke or playing on that ‘Dumb and Dumber’ scene I am NOT. Repressed memories.
omber
Roughly 5 years ago, I was working janitorial in a mall in British Columbia. The task I was assigned was to clean all the main entrances to the mall (pretty basic: mop floors, clean windows, vacuum rugs) and it was odd to see people walking around the exterior of the mall for a few reasons. The biggest being the fact that there is a large parking lot and it was really late at night.
This random drunk dude wanders up to the main doors, waves at me and asks how I’m doing. I wave back and say “fine.” He then whips out his penis and starts trying to urinate on me through the small crack in the door. Luckily, the crack wasn’t that big and I was quick enough to get out of the way of the stream that makes it through the door. He started laughing and as I stood in shock, staring at him, a police officer flashes his lights and the guy starts to run. He didn’t make it very far.
Apparently, security was watching me on camera almost getting pissed on, so he called the police. I watched the video with him and we pretty hard.
skryzdv
Where do I begin…
As a security guard in a large shopping mall situated downtown:
1) Drunk man falls off of a balcony and lands (head first) onto the ground below. He lived but he had some seriously nasty wounds.
2) A man with an apparent mental disability used the mail room of an attached business tower as his bathroom. A large puddle of piss accompanied by crap smeared down the wall (you could tell he was squatting up against the wall). How he got in to the tower was beyond us. We didn’t see him enter when we viewed the security camera footage, we only saw him leave.
3) I actually didn’t mind this incident. I was finishing up a night shift and patrolling one of the business towers (roughly on the 20th floor or so) and find an office door ajar. It turned out to be one of the empty offices and the property manager must have forgotten to close the door all the way on their way out. While clearing it, I just happened to look out the window. Across the street from this building is a hotel. I see a (very fit and attractive) woman opening her blinds while completely nude. I’m not ashamed to say I took a second, much longer look.
As a night security guard for another company, situated in many locations across the city:
1) I patrolled a construction yard for a new seminary. I saw a guy rave dancing in the middle of the yard. Clearly he was not supposed to be there so I approach him and ask him what he was doing. He lunges at me with a knife. Fortunately I was wearing my stab vest so there was no penetration into my lower abdomen, but he broke the protective plating within the vest.
2) Patrolling a Ford dealership, I noticed a guy peeking into windows of cars on the lot. I asked him how he’s doing and started just striking up conversation to find out a little about him. Before I even finish asking him how he is, I find myself staring down the barrel of a handgun (presumably 9mm).
Super scared, I find myself unable to move (except my arms and hands went up over my head before I even realized what I was in the middle of). I clearly remember hearing the firing mechanism “click” against the bullet but it did not fire. Without thinking, I pressed the emergency alert button on my radio, ran and ducked behind a car, and immediately described the suspect in as much detail as I could. The police and a helicopter dispatched and find the guy hiding under a tractor in a nearby heavy equipment dealership.
3) Patrolling a rather sketchy apartment building with my partner, we found ourselves having to arrest some woman for assault by trespass. She spat in my partner’s face after we attempted to escort her from the property and she did not live there and had no reason to be in the building. A guy, unrelated to the initial incident, saw me trying to place my handcuffs on this woman and decides it would be a good idea to football tackle me.
I find myself unable to breath and coughing up blood (contusions to left lung were the cause) while defending myself from a drunk and high, 6’5″, over 200 pound man (I’m 5’7″ and 170 pounds). Backup arrives along with police and we tackle and arrest the man for assault as well as assault on a peace officer. Her tried to trip and kick one of the police officers as well.
When the court date finally came around, the offender shows up wearing a leather jacket, dirty jeans, a ripped t-shirt, and smelling like marijuana. He shouted in court and claimed I tried to put him in a headlock (which wouldn’t have been relevant anyway. Needless to say, he was convicted.
nomofica
I used to do graveyard security at an emergency room.
When I just started the job, one night, I was on break and crossing the empty hospital parking lot to walk over to the 7-11.
Out of nowhere, this hatchback starts revving it’s engine from across the lot. Then it screeches forward, heading right for me.
At this point, I’m like trying to run serpentine and get over a curb into the street. I’m legit scared I’m going to be ran over by some homicidal wacko. I’m about 30 yards from the curb edge when the car pulls up beside me.
That’s when the passenger door flies open and this little woman with blonde hair hops out and starts chasing me. She’s yelling, “Hey, you! What are you doing? Come here!”
This is all a big no no for me and I keep running with this little person chasing me.
Then the driver side of the door opens and out pops fellow security guy, Ted, laughing his head off. He introduces the little person woman as Sue, his girlfriend, who is also now laughing.
They go on to explain that they do this to all the new guys.
Sue, if you’re our there, I’ve got nothing but love for ya. Ted, I still kind of hate you.
SparkyMountain
So I was working at an oil refinery in India, doing the always fun 6 pm to 6 am shift. We would do actual work until around 9 every night then screw around and just make sure everything stayed stable.
Well around 2 am the compressor tripped. What the heck? Great, and now the whole plant was down. We check and saw there was no reason it happened, no high temperature, pre delivery inspection, vibration etc. So we thought, play these things happen every so often so let’s do whatever we can to get it going again.
The next night the same thing happens. This goes on for 4 days or so, and we’re getting chewed out by Oleg, the sadistic chief who famously berated an unmarried indian man for being a virgin, and would beat people with bamboo sticks – a really excellent human being.
Luckily, we were doing commissioning stuff so losing production wasn’t a freakishly huge deal, it was only a moderately huge deal. If it was Starbucks it would be the tall pumpkin latte of disasters, you know delicious but at least it wasn’t a venti.
So me and a co-worker are talking and we decide to take one of the security cameras and turn it onto the compressor. But the compressor trips yet again, we go to the security room and get the guard to let us watch the video. It’s boring which is expected because it’s an oil refinery in India in the middle of the night. There were some lizards crawling around, a few giant flies go by, then suddenly we see a dark figure approaching. Maybe 3 feet tall and walking with a hunch.
It goes up to the compressor and starts turning some dials and pressing some buttons. The compressor trips and it scats out of the area. Oh, but this was no dark spirit from no sleep, it was a god damn monkey.
The solution: they hired a young boy to sit there on guard at night with a cricket paddle thing.
ooo-ooo-oooyea
I work in a sleep lab. It was just a regular night until my first patient arrived. He was a young, black male who was about 18-years-old. The first words out of his mouth were, “Do you have any lotion?” “Uh, maybe. I’ll check for you.”
I took him to his room and did a quick search for lotion. “He must be a bit ashy,” I thought. (Quick background information: most sleep lab rooms have microphones and cameras to confirm rare sleep disorders).
There was no lotion except for a coworker’s really feminine variety. So, I flick the mic on and tell him that we’re all out. “Is there a camera in here?” “Yes sir,” I said.
Before I go further it is important that I mention that there is time allocated before sleep studies for patients to get settled, do paperwork, eat and more. Right before I go in to begin the test, I turn the cameras on and there he was, on his back in the center of the bed, completely naked. He had commandeered our liquid hand soap and was lubing and stroking with the efficiency and coordination of an Olympic athlete.
That jerk KNEW we had cameras. To top it off, he didn’t clean up. He left the liquid soap covered in it’s own, and his own, ejaculate on the night stand right next to the bed.
Where ever you are, you jerk, I know what you did. We all do.
Holeinmysock
I was working in a liquor store at 2 am and some guys walk into the store. He heads to the back to grab a 12 case of beer from the cooler and ten seconds later his car comes barreling through the front door still on and everything.
That jerk left his car in drive and the sloped parking lot let it pick up speed and barrel through the front door.
Best part when he walked out of the cooler.
“Ahh crap, that’s my car.”
Well no crap sherlock… you were the only person in the parking lot.
Armandio4
I’m the overnight desk clerk at a small hotel and I’ve been doing it for nearly six years. If I were a Sim, this is level two of the slacker track. Anyway, it’s mostly a very, very boring job.
My hotel is on the waterfront and the dumpster is on the far end of the building, near a crabbing wharf. I go out there one night to take out the lobby trash and it’s dark as a bowel so I do things out there mostly by touch. I proceed to lift the dumpster lid and a dinosaur screams in my face.
Great blue herons are terrifying, terrifying birds in the dark. Especially, when they’re standing above you flapping their wings because you just upended the surface they’re standing on. They will start snapping their knife-face at you while making deep screaming noises.
This heron and I have had other encounters. Once, he was inside the recycling dumpster when I opened it. Frequently, it drops rotting fish or large fish off the roof to explode all over our front patio. Once he even got into an empty guest room during a storm and I had to herd him out. Or he’d just stand outside and make horrible dinosaur-like noises. But he finally vanished last winter and I thought I had outlasted him. Maybe I did. But I have a new one now, and he introduced himself by standing right outside my patio door, stretching his neck at eye-level with me, and shrieking, holding my gaze. Screw you birds. Herons aren’t even supposed to be nocturnal.
Aside from demon birds staying up all night just to screw with me, my hotel has a few ghost things and I have had regular problems with sleepwalkers. Men who sleepwalk, why do you sleep nude?
HatlyHats
I answer phones for an answering service.
One night I took a call from some account we barely take calls for. It was dead air for a moment and suddenly this guy starts singing ‘Hey there little Red Riding Hood, you sure are looking good. You’re everything a big bad wolf could want’ and then went quiet. Despite me trying to get a response, he just kept breathing. Eventually I hung up on him.
The next call is disturbing in a different way. Another night a year or so ago, I took a call for a veterinary office from a woman that was in a panic because her cat was sick. She wasn’t sure what was wrong, but I could hear the poor thing gargling as it meowed like it had blood in it’s lungs. The woman said the cat was all she had left, so I tried my best to get all her information down so I could get the veterinary as soon as possible. But the cat died before I could. The only reason I even knew that was because I heard it stop making noise.
The poor woman lost it. She began bawling hysterically, screaming and begging the cat to get up, and then begged God not to take the cat because she’d have nobody left.
After I realized there was nothing I could do or say because she walked away from the phone, I quietly hung up and just kind of sat there for a minute. That call has stuck with me for a while.
FBI_Monitoring_Van