When Coyote Howls

Despite my paranormal experience as a kid, nothing else occurred until I was about twenty-five. I became a divorced mother of two young girls and took a job at El Coyote in Netcong, NJ. It's a bright pink building with a long history. Before Coyote, it was two restaurants. Club 21 and Nellie Burke's.

When I started working, no one ever mentioned anything to me about the strange things that would happen there. No one told me about the voices and the shadows and that when your hair stood straight up on your arms when you went downstairs was a common occurrence. I think they were waiting for me to tell them.

My very first experience was the knocking on the window. We had closed up for the night and I was going to meet other employees for an after work drink. I was the last one out, parked down in the back on the ramp. The kitchen was right above me. I unlocked the car and heard the pounding on the windows. I looked up, the kitchen was pitch black. I felt the hair on the back of my neck prickle and my hands shook with my keys. Three more hard raps on the window and I couldn't bring myself to look up again. I bee lined for the bar we were all meeting at.

When I arrived Brenda looked at me and asked if I was okay. Apparently, I was very pale and had a hard time describing what had just happened. When I told her and the others they just smiled and said "Coyote ghost make contact?". Of course I was intrigued. Scared, yet curious. I started talking to Bill the head bartender. There were many nights he stayed after closing and heard only noises in the beginning. He heard silverware jingling by table forty. He saw shadows moving through the dining area and would investigate finding no one. Soon after, he told me of the manifestation.

He was cleaning up, catching some t.v. when he heard the front door click. You can't see the front door from the bar but when people come in you can see their shadows on the one entry way wall because of the chandelier in the lobby. He walked to the lobby and found not a soul. He walked the dining room once, thinking they went inside but again it was darkness. He walked back toward the front door only to see the form of a man. He was middle-aged, wearing a white and black striped sweater with a closely cropped beard. He told me that upon seeing the dude, he screamed like a little girl! Big burly, biker Billy screamed. I had to laugh.

Sometimes, when I work, I hear my name being called. Easy enough in a place where you worked for the last thirteen years. But when no one really is calling you, that's when you feel it. Your customers don't want you, your co-workers didn't either, that's a freak out. It's not just me, it's all of us! The voice could be male or female and knows each and all of us because the staff has been there forever.

The poor bus kids won't go downstairs alone. My nephew (who I suspect may be gifted on his mom's side) has seen the same shadow I have, casually leaning in a doorway downstairs observing us getting supplies. He quit. Ouija's didn't help. I don't like tangling with them anyway. We decided to call in researchers. Ironically, before they came, the relatives of the previous owners came in. Lynn was their waitress and told her the craziest story.

Downstairs used to be a bar as well as the one upstairs. When her grandpa would close Nellie's he would call the cops at least twice a month, swearing there were people hiding downstairs. Bar stools could be heard moving around, bottles would clank but when the old man came down it would stop.

TSPR came in a few months later. Activity was low, but the second time they returned there was lots more. A few entities occupy the building. I urge you to visit tsprghosts.com Netcong, NJ. There's pictures, video and EVP readings that were not picked up the first time. Or you can google El Coyote, Netcong.

Unfortunately, our owner died. We all still work there though but the place has been so quiet. I keep urging the new owners for renovations to see if our 'friends' will contact us. We miss them but maybe they moved on. And if that means peace for them then that's cool with me.