This tale of a haunting takes place in a town which some call "the sweetest place on Earth." Hershey, Pennsylvania is well known for its famous chocolate bar's and candies and also for its amusement park but some know very little about the horrors which take place in this small American town. I recently interviewed a close friend to the family who had worked at numerous locations in Hershey and who at times got the "scare of his life" whilst working around the clock.
My first story begins with a middle aged man who we are going to call Jim (Asked if I could change his name to protect his identity). Jim had been working security for Hershey Co. For sometime and worked various shifts around the factories, the amusement park itself and also the old theater. Soon, Jim would be finding himself working nights at the Hershey theater which was constructed in September, 1933 during a campaign which would defy the "Great depression." One particular night Jim was doing his security checks in the old 1904 seat theater when he noticed a life-sized cardboard cutout of some celebrity standing in the middle of the main aisle. "Very strange" considering Jim was the only employee who was in that building on that night. "I had walked down that main walkway about 15 minutes earlier that morning and I would have walked right into it and knocked it over. For something so odd it made me kind of laugh a bit." Jim also felt as if maybe someone had followed him in, maybe he forgot to lock the doors after he went to go inside and do his checks. "After I placed that cardboard celebrity stand-up back up behind the stage with some of the other props I got some chills up my spine." Jim also began to get the impression he was being watched.
BACKSTAGE SCARE
Months went by as Jim continued working nights at the Hershey theater. A couple of his fellow employees had in the past experienced a few things here and there that were deemed to be ghosts and spirits. "We could all agree on the sound of footsteps. Some nights it sounded as if the place was packed with a audience, like there was a show going on but there wasn't and the place was closed at 2 or 3 in the morning." Jim shrugged as he lit a cigarette and took a hard drag. His expression slowly changed from a smile to a frown. "This one night I was going backstage to do some of my checks." Jim took another long drag and proceeded to tell me that after checking some of the backstage he had to go upstairs and behind the stage and check a few of the other rooms. "I always got a sinking feeling in my stomach going up those steps, kind of like I shouldn't be going up here." Jim flicked a couple light switches on and walked up the steps. His flashlight glared down the dim-lit hallway at the top of the stair case. "I then checked one of the three rooms up there carefully and moved on." Jim took his time in spite of the feeling of fear in his gut. " I get inside this one room and switch the light on and there it is!" Jim was frozen in complete shock at the sight of a man standing up on a chair on the other side of the room. "At first I couldn't believe what I was seeing and at the same time I couldn't take my eye's off of it." Jim went on to explain that the apparition had the expression of anger all over its face. "The vibe's I got from this thing, this man was not good. I could feel complete dread and misery!" Jim's eye's picked up on something in the far and dark corner of the room. "She was lying down and sobbing. At the time I couldn't believe I was seeing this!" The apparition of the young sobbing woman looked up at the man up on the chair. Suddenly to Jim's horror, he witnessed the man who was furious reach up for a noose and wrap it around its neck. The ghost of the young crying lady began to reach out to the man when the chair of the enraged spirit was standing on kicked out beneath him. Jim had enough time to see the man hang himself and witness his arms and legs reaching and kicking about. "I thought I was going to die of a heart attack but sure enough I hauled *** out of there. It took me sometime to get over what happened that night. Even though it was my job to check things out in that old theater, I sure as hell wouldn't go up in that room. Also I thought about quitting but then again who would be paying the bills?" As far as Jim had known during those days none of the other employees had experienced anything like he did. "A few of us knew the place was haunted but the other employees didn't seem to care." Jim laughed and wondered if the one's who thought the place was spirit-free actually went inside to do the security checks. When I had asked him about what he had witnessed that one horrid night he just went into a zone and his tone changed. "I have no idea what it was all about but I know one thing, the chair that this apparition was standing on was real because it was something I was use too seeing when I checked that room out. It was scary how that chair kicked out from under that man's feet, it was like it was all too real." I questioned Jim about what the ghost's were wearing. "Oh, you know at the moment I was pretty much scared out of my wits but from what I remember it appeared too be classic attire people would wear during anywhere from the 30's to the 50's. One thing that really stands out and scares me is that evil expression on this dude's face, he was radiating pure evil from that look!"
The spirit within the corridor
Jim went on with his ghost stories about the haunts in Hershey and told me about a group of contractors who were doing some work in a below ground level corridor. Unknown to the contractors were rumors of ghosts and spirits roaming the long stretch of hallways and a elevator which had a "mind of its own." When a few of the men would either be leaving or arriving the elevator would just randomly go to certain floors, its doors opening as if someone was getting off or getting on. The last day this particular group of contractors would be working down in that corridor before they all quit they said they saw the ghostly apparition of a Indian standing at a distance glaring at them. Jim explained too me that they had all quit that day and all together, left there tools down there and never returned.
Haunted Hershey Park
During the day in the sunshine Hershey park is echoed with cheer and laughter but what of the night when the park is empty and silence fills the darkness? It is reported that the park's carousel turns on by itself in the late night hours into the early morning hours. Also there are two reports of accidental deaths involving two of the park's roller coasters, The "Comet" a wooden roller coaster which was built in the late 40's. A maintenance worker was killed when he fell to his death after inspecting and repairing sections of the Comet coaster in the early hours of dawn. It is said that his spirit is sometimes seen roaming around where he met his fate...
Hope you guys enjoyed and happy haunting... Till next time.
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