Work Place Ghosties

I work for a popular grocery chain here in the Western USA. Ultimately, we're owned by a much larger corporation that operates many different chains. In Las Vegas, the grocery industry is very competitive, and many times larger chains have been forced to close some of their stores and sell them to other chains that have a better potential for profit due to their formats and abilities to focus on the demographics of the area. A few years ago my company purchased several stores in this manner.

One particular store has a very infamous past. In 1999, a man entered the store, very early in the morning, and started a random shooting spree that left four people dead and another critically wounded. All were employees. One victim was a middle aged woman, a bakery/service deli clerk, the same department I work in. Another victim, a produce clerk, was also killed in the same area.

This store has never been my "home" store, but a few weeks ago I spent a week there, helping out the B/SD manager as she was short on help. I was kind of excited, because all of my fellow employees I'd talked to who make this store their "home" believe that it is, indeed, haunted. Here are my experiences.

For the first couple of days, I had been sensing something, but thought with all the negativity it was probably residual. So the fourth morning, while doing my prep work I said, "Okay, well, if you're here you can show me. I won't be scared. Just do something out of the ordinary." Our ovens hold two racks; they slide onto a bar that then lifts and turns them. There is a slide bar that locks the racks in place so they don't get stuck by the movement of the arm. Since most of the time I bake two racks at a time, I leave one lock in place so all I have to do is slide the next batch in and secure the one lock. I hadn't had a problem with the locks to this point, but... On this day, every time I went to put something in the oven I had to secure BOTH locks. I was getting very frustrated, and left a few of my shoe prints on the floor of the oven from having to step inside to get the racks unstuck.

My next shift started off with me looking for the little knife we use to score the dough. Very important piece of equipment, I might add. Because of its size, it's always kept in the same general area so that everyone can find it when needed. That little thing was nowhere to be found, so in my frustration, I used one of the bigger, bulkier, harder to maneuver knives, and yes, I was letting loose with a grand string of expletives all the while LOL. I finished the first batch of scoring and went to the restroom. When I returned, lo and behold, there the thing was, right beside my bottle of water! I would have seen when I set the bottle down, or at the very least, during my frantic search.

The next morning, my next to the last day there, was by far the most active. While preparing the first racks to be baked (yes, the knife was where it was supposed to be), I heard an older woman say, "Hello?" It sounded like a customer would when not seeing anybody behind the counter. But, the store was closed. The only other women there were the Non Foods clerk who is rather masculine with a much lower tone in her voice, and the girl on the floor cleaning crew who was running the buffer at the time. I said "Hi!" back, and thanked her.

A while later I went upstairs to retrieve a scan gun to do the markdowns. The guns are kept in a locked room with the type of lock that you push three numbers, and I didn't know the combination. But, I heard some banging and rustling around as I climbed the stairs. As I rounded the corner I saw the door on its way to closing so I ran for it, but it shut just before I got to it. I stood there, pounding on the door for about five minutes, but to no avail, as no one was in there. The book-keeper wasn't there yet nor any checkers, or anyone who would need to access the room.

Later on in the day, I got the combination but when I went upstairs, the door to the room was ajar. It is supposed to be kept closed at all times. I had passed another employee on my way upstairs because the break room is up there, also. I thought to myself, "Surely she would have seen the door open and would have closed it?" I asked her about it the next day, and she said it was closed when she was up there. I should mention that I know she wasn't in the room because there are motion sensitive lights that stay lit for about ten minutes after no motion is detected, and the room was dark when I stepped in.

I don't know, maybe some of these events could be explained logically. But I did do my best to debunk everything.