During the Night Shift

I realize my experience is probably quite mundane compared to the other stories I've read on this site, but here goes:

A few years ago, I used to work as a security guard at Texaco's corporate headquarters in Harrison, New York. I had left another job site that closed down and begun working the 11PM-7AM night shift there with my partner Carlos
(a White Plains policeman who was moonlighting as a private guard). This happened approximately one month after they had the anti-discrimination protests which had recieved widespread media attention in the U.S. Each night, one of us would stay at the front desk (by the only entrance to the building that was open at nighttime) monitoring and logging into a book who came in and out while the other guard would either drive around in the patrol vehicle outside or walk around the inside of the large office building checking fire exits, making sure doors were locked (raiding the
refrigerators, putting his feet up on the president's desk, catching naps, etc) and basically making sure everything looked okay on all floors.

We would remain in radio contact with each other and with Neil (our sarcastic and overbearing supervisor) who was in the security console room located in the basement. After working with Carlos for a few weeks, he started complaining to me about seeing strange apparitions while going through the deserted corridors. Whenever he saw one, he would sort of catch them flitting around the corner of his eye or shooting across his path and then they were gone. He had mentioned that one of them looked like a construction worker wearing a yellow hardhat. Then later one night he reported over his walkie-talkie hearing strange footsteps on the top floor and not finding the person making them. I told him that according to our log book and judging from our previous tours around the building, there simply couldn't have been anyone up there. The only people on the whole property were me, Carlos, Neil, and
an engineer working in the console room with him.

I've done security work for over 5 years (gate/desk/tour guard, supervisor, manager, etc) and at almost every job site I've been to I would hear ghost stories from some guard or other. I kept an open mind and listened to them politely, but up until now I have never experienced anything personally so I always just shrugged my shoulders and never really knew what to make of them. Besides, over 85% of security guards I've known in the business have little education, below average intelligence, frequently dishonest, and often don't play with a full deck (that's the
REALLY scary part about this job!). I guess I can understand how walking through deserted dark buildings can be kind of creepy, but I always liked the quiet and solitude. One thing that struck me as kind of odd, though, is
that the Texaco office building was only relatively recently built in the 1970's - I thought that only old buildings are supposed to have ghosts.

Anyway, I figured that Carlos was probably just really tired and overworked from having two jobs and not getting any real sleep. Well, two nights later I was going up one of the fire exit staircases like usual and opened the door to the top floor. At that point, I clearly heard loud footsteps coming from the corridor around the corner from me. I walked around the corner and heard the footsteps walking down the corridor away from me and becoming fainter, but I didn't see anyone. I was certain that nobody was supposed to be there, so while going down the hall I loudly
called out in my most authoritative voice "TEXACO SECURITY. WHO IS UP HERE??" two times. Right then, I distinctly heard a shoe squeak against the floor as if whoever was walking made a quick turn, then a brief pause, and
then the footsteps continued and sounded like they were going out the other fire exit (even though the door remained shut).

I specifically noticed that the footsteps had a sharp 'click-clack-click-clack' sound as if somebody was walking on a tile floor. The only problem is, every inch of those floors are CARPETED. If there was a person walking up there, I shouldn't have heard anything! I then remembered Carlos' report two nights before so I hurried after the sound to catch whoever it was, ran through the other fire exit, and looked down the stairs. The sound had completely stopped and there was noone in the stairwell. All the fire exit doors remained closed like they were supposed to be and no one had gone out any of them, since those big metal doors echo through the whole building when you close them
and I would have heard it being right in the area.

I radioed down to Carlos in the lobby and Neil in the console room and checked whether they let anybody up there. I then started looking through all the offices, which turned out to be empty. There were no other workers
in the building. Neil responded "Ehhhhh, right, that's just my ghost. I send it up there to keep an eye on you two losers". Neil always was a jerk.


By: logic316@technologist.com