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A Person Asked Our Community To Share Their Creepiest Work Stories, And 30 Pandas Answered
Hey Pandas! For my first post on this platform, I wanted to know one thing... What's your creepiest work story? Did you see or maybe even hear a ghost? Dealt with an overly creepy customer? Did a coworker say or do something chilling that you can't seem to forget?
People in the comments were kind enough to share their own stories, and I must say I'm both impressed and chilled to the core.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Not creepy as in ghost but still creepy…. When I was 16 I was working at the grocery store as a bagger, it was policy to ask everyone with 2 or more bags if they need help out to the car. A guy comes through with 1 bag and a case of water, I asked assuming he'll say no. He said yes. Luckily the manager was the cashier so she pages for a boy to come to help this guy.
I go to my car after work at 10 pm and there is a note on my car that says “next time you help me out not (boy's name)” I was not allowed to walk to my car alone after that. To think that if the manager hadn’t thought it was weird and would've let me help this man to his car... she probably saved me.
Final score:
189points
AngelWingsYT 3 years ago
You have working CTV cameras? You could maybe report him for that 😬 thats unsettling
#2
I was at work on a night shift at the movie theater. It was last (only one movie showing left) so it was pretty dead. I was helping a couple with their order of a large popcorn (with butter). While I was making the snack I hear this soft voice behind me ask "can I have a refill?" I turn to let the person know I'd be happy to help after I finish the order I was on only to find no one! Besides the people I was helping, the only other person around was my co-worker who was busy cleaning the hot foods area.
I finish the order and duck in back to take a minute to comprehend what happened. My other co-worker was on dishes and noticed I looked a bit frazzled. I told them what happened only for them to look freaked out. They told me they heard someone say "hi" to them a few days ago but saw no one around! Our manager walks in and asks us what's up so we both tell her our experiences. To which she casually responds with "oh yea this place is haunted. Yesterday I was ushering and saw an apparition in theater 5." We later learn another usher say the apparition was in another theater! Now we all are on the lookout for any signs of the spirit! We also warn newbies about the fella. :) At least it seems like we have a nice spirit!
Final score:
160points
H.L.Lewis 3 years ago
I think most of the ghosts or spirits are benign. I have a couple friends that also have experience with ghosts. And I saw my neighbors father after he passed away. He came out on neighbors porch. Then a few days later I saw his obituary in the paper. So I was shocked that he'd died so suddenly. But in talking to my neighbor later I found out his Dad had been in the hospital for weeks before he died. So he was glad to know his Dad had come to see him.
#3
I work for a new car dealer, and, like most, we have a system of who is up next. I was #1 in the rotation, and this old guy drives by slowly, then parks. I'm sitting next to the building, everyone else is across the way in chairs under the trees. The old guy walks over to the one female out on the block and says "I want you to sell me a car." She told him we have an order, and that I'm up. Nope, he wants her. I said go ahead. The dude crept on her the entire time. Always trailing and looking. We did not get in cars with people in 2020 (didn't start going again till about 6 weeks ago) to do test drives, but, he really, really wanted her to go with him. No. He crept on her the entire time at the desk, asking her about her life, where she lived, whether she had a boyfriend, stuff like that. Even asked her out.
After the sale, he kept calling her asking her out. She blocked his number, and HR ended up calling him. Nasty old man.
Final score:
119points
#4
I work for the homicide detectives with my local sheriff's office. We have a headquarters building that has 2 floors, a basement, and "the penthouse" as I like to call it. You have to go up weird stairs, to get to an outside door to cross the roof to reach the 'penthouse'.
Most people don't even know it's there. It's where old files and all our cold case murder records are kept. The earliest one is from the 1920s, I think?
Every time I go up there to pull another cold case report, I see someone walking with me through the old fuel records and vacation records at the other end of the aisles to my right. There is no corridor on the far right of this space. There are only aisles off the lane I walk in, think like a hair comb. But I swear there is someone at the end of each of the aisles walking with me through the space. I tell everyone who will listen, but as I said, a lot of people don't even know we have a 'penthouse'. Not malicious at all, just there, keeping me company, while I search for reports on unsolved murders.
Final score:
116points
#5
Years ago I was working at a horse breeding farm that had multiple barns. I was working alone in one of the remote locations on one bright, sunny day, mixing and preparing horse feed. The feed room was on one side of the center aisle in the middle of the 28-stall barn. I heard approaching footsteps on the aisleway, so I looked out and saw a man coming into the barn. He was wearing boots, and a western hat and had his hands in his pockets as he came in silhouetted by the sun. I turned to put down what I was mixing and asked "Hi, may I help you?" He was gone. I looked around outside, no footprints and no sign of him.
When I went to dinner that night, I told my friends about this guy. One of them said that a man who had been staying in the living quarters in that barn had been known to cash his paychecks and keep his money with him in his room. Someone had murdered and robbed him years ago and his ghost enters the barn occasionally to presumably either get his money or return to work. He gets as far as where his room was, then he vanishes. Apparently, his visits are usually the day after payday since that was the night he was murdered. Spooky, but, harmless.
Final score:
92points
Hobby Hopper 2 years ago
Ghost stories don't usually start with 'It was a bright and sunny day'.
#6
Was painting a new house. I was working on the same detached garage all 3 times this happened. First I saw three carpenters leave for lunch. A guy I'm working for comments when they come back that they took a long lunch. Since only two guys come back I say, "Well maybe they took the other guy home." He looked confused and asks, "What other guy?". I said the third carpenter.
He's like "There are only two". So he asks them if they had more help in the morning. Nope, they didn't. Too bad because the guy was nice looking.
So later I'm working and out of the corner of my eye, I see a white figure go by behind me. Thinking it's the boss who always wore painter's white I turn to look where he's going. No one there. At the back of the garage working, the same thing happens, but passes by me on the left. I turn to look, but no one was there. So one real ghost, and one or two spirits. Not really creepy though.
Final score:
91points
#7
When I was a teenager I worked at an old mansion built in 1857 that had been converted into a wedding reception venue. All the table decorations and supplies were kept in the attic, so we had to go up there frequently. There was an elevator to the attic, but it would only go up unless the call button was pressed on a lower floor. So you could take the elevator up but you had to take the narrow "servants' stairs" back down.
The first time I was in the attic by myself getting tablecloths, both of the lightbulbs suddenly shattered, leaving me in the dark. When I say I SHRIEKED, I mean you could probably have heard me throughout the whole house. I had to feel around to find the stairs and ran down them. I told one of the other staff what happened and they said "oh yeah, the house is haunted" which would have been good information to have before I went to the attic by myself!
Final score:
83points
#8
I think I already told the story on BP but it fits. I used to work at a tile shop and we had a basic-looking lady come in and ask for splatter-proof tiles. I was confused and asked her what type of splatter she meant. I asked if she meant oil, grease, or wine-like tiles for a frequently used kitchen. But she said it was for her basement. She needed tiles you can easily wipe clean without leaving any stains. Telling her most glazed tiles are easy to wipe she added that they can't be white. Being a good employee I showed her some of our tiles. She looked uncomfortable the entire time and kept looking around the store like she was looking for something.
All of her questions were really weird and oddly specific.
Being a horror movie enthusiast - I'm pretty sure she wanted to build a slaughter room. I told my boss about her but he said it's none of our business and I should forget about her. I never saw her ever again.
Final score:
83points
#9
Not ghost creepy. Client creepy.
Came up to me at a work event and grabbed me around the neck. An arm comes up, clutches across my throat, cuts off my air. I'm scrabbling at him to get him to let go, it takes him about 10 seconds to clue in that I was freaking out and even then it didn't occur to him that he was CHOKING me.
Even when I saw him a few days later with bruises on my throat, nada. Oh, I told him and he apologized profusely, but it ended there.
Who's the creep? The boss who said that we'd have to determine the guy's intent before deciding whether the company would support me if I chose to press assault charges. What does intent matter when your customer just choked one of your staff?
Final score:
78points
#10
My colleagues said I should include this story, it still creeps them out to this day.
We have this one kid that comes to our clinic every 8 weeks or so, his mother and little sister (maybe 5 or 6 years old) always come with him. Every test we did on him, she wanted to do as well. So we did a few (all not invasive) tests, all the while she giggling and telling her big brother not to worry, 'everything's easy.
After his last check-up, we said "see you soon!" to his little sister and she said, "no, you won't!". I asked 'You don't want to come anymore?' and she said, "It's not that! I'm just not going to be around anymore. "
She died a week before his next appointment was due. It was like she knew...
Final score:
77points
#11
Context: Back in December 1989, my country went through a bloody popular revolution, the fall of the communist regime, and over 1,000 people were shot to death in the streets. One of the heat points in the city was the building that hosted the army headquarters.
Fast forward to 2004, I had just graduated and I got to work in that military complex, as a civilian. Didn't know many details about it. One day, during lunch break, this older colleague starts talking about what she had witnessed there, in 1989. The complex was the place of a horrible massacre. A group of anti-terrorist fighters came to the complex to help its defense, but they were mistakenly taken for attackers and butchered by the armed forces (it was nighttime). The confusion lasted for several days and everyone believed those were "people's enemies". Their bodies were left on the street. The press presented the case as a victory of the revolution. Somebody had profaned the dead bodies in a gruesome manner (one of the bodies had been beheaded).
She said that she was forced to come to work and pass by the decomposing bodies, on the blood-stained pavement, for about a week. She then showed us the bullet marks still visible on some trees nearby, and on the civilian flats on the other side of the road. Horrible.
Final score:
76points
Stephanie IV 3 years ago
Creepy is too small a word for that. That’s horrific. Abject terror and bottomless despair. What wolves we are to each other.
#12
One of the fashion companies I used to work for in Los Angeles converted an old building into offices. They remodeled most of the front interior, but many of the back rooms were left untouched. When I first started there, I had absolutely no idea of the history of the building and would often work late by myself.
My desk was toward the front of the building but I often had to walk to the back to drop off paperwork for colleagues to review the following day. To get to their desk I had to walk by several of the barren rooms down a long dimly lit corridor. Every time I made this walk I'd feel uneasy, but this particular evening the hairs on the back of my neck stuck straight up and a chill ran down my spine. I felt as if someone or something was watching me, and even following close behind me. I didn't hear footsteps, but the floor began to creak very loudly. I booked it, practically throwing the papers on the desk.
When I made it back to mine, security was waiting to tell me it was time for me to leave so they could lock up the building. I told him what happened and he chuckled, "you don't know? This building is haunted. This used to be a mortuary and those back rooms were where they stored the dead bodies. Makes more sense why you stay late. There's a reason no one else does." I brought sage the next day and never stayed late again!
Final score:
72points
#13
A long long time ago I worked as a field engineer in drilling operations in a South American country. The drilling rig was in the middle of nowhere in the jungle. I was working the night shift. One evening the local roughnecks working in the rig were telling us about strange things that happened in the area, and they mentioned that there were some nights when they could hear "the wailing woman" (la Llorona) crying by the nearby river.
For the people who don't know this myth, it's about the spirit of a woman who drowned her own baby in the river and keeps mourning her loss. I enjoyed listening to their stories but I didn't take them seriously. In general, in some regions of South America people can be very superstitious and believe in all sorts of crazy myths and legends. For me, they were just...stories.
Anyway, I had forgotten about all that when about a week later at around 3 am I was walking from the rig to the accommodation (which was a 5min walk) when suddenly I heard the most horrible wailing coming from far far away. The wailing evoked all sorts of feelings: pain, desperation, despair, anger. I can't quite describe how it was; it was just creepy and horrendous, a sound you don't want to hear ever again.
I was all alone, all was dark apart from the dim light that lighted the path between the rig and the accommodation... I just ran back to the rig pale as paper, totally freaked out. The roughnecks saw my face and asked me what happened and I told them what I heard. They said it must have been La Llorona and that the sound was indeed terrifying to hear. Some sat down to pray to send her soul to rest. I couldn't go to the accommodation on my own for some night afterward. I never heard the wailing again and none of my colleagues ever heard it. I still wonder what sound it was... an animal? It sounded pretty human to me.
Final score:
64points
M Calad (Submission author) 3 years ago
It could have been an animal. It could have been a person being tortured or murdered (hope not!, although the area was known for having a guerrilla group patrolling). It could have been anything. But boy, it was creepy!
#14
I worked in a semi-new building a few years back, doing random office stuff. One event was someone calling my name directly behind me. Turn. No one there.
The second time was in the same room with others around and a k-cup came out of nowhere and hits me in the back of my leg. Ok, little frisky. I tell “it” to stop playing around.
And the third time I’m at a conference table with a door to my right and a table in front and a wall to my back. I’m standing at the table sorting some paper and felt a hand on my lower back like if you were to walk behind someone and do that so they don’t step back into you. I moved forward and said “sorry” if I blocked them and turn as I say it. No one there. I had the owner pull the security camera footage. That room as if had just happened and you see me standing there a mist man shape from inside the doorway and walk behind me. I step forward and turn to say sorry and it literally cloaks me and is gone. They started to believe when I did see or have things happen to me. I’m sensitive so I’m used to it. It’s starting again at my new job and already heard my name and felt “someone” touch my shoulder to get my attention.
Final score:
63points
#15
I must have been maybe 16 or 17 and worked at a very well-known wing & sports bar. I had a very outdated phone and was complaining about it to one of our managers at the time, who was in his maybe mid-50s. He offered to give me his old phone that he just upgraded from. I thought it was such a nice gesture and he explained that I reminded him a lot of his daughter when she was my age. So sweet, right? The next day he gives it to me and told me he made sure to wipe it clean. I go home that night to set it up and put all my photos on it, and noticed that there were a few photos and a video left on it. They were all of his private parts. I immediately showed my mom and she told me I had to tell the big boss man at work.
I went to work the next day and he asked if I liked the phone and all its features. I turned and walked straight over to the General Manager and gave him the phone and told him what happened. He sent me home so I thought I was in trouble. Obviously, I wasn't the one who was and the perv was fired and the police were called. I remind you of your daughter? Okay, I hope you enjoy jail for the rest of your life.
Final score:
61points
Agent 8433599 2 years ago (edited)
The fact that he mentions his daughter is just extra creepy
#16
When I was working in the field, there were times when I had to work overtime on the weekend, all alone in the administration office. Every time it was approaching dusk, the “nice spirit” would start to drag the furniture on the second floor (sound only) to remind me that it was getting dark and it was not safe to stay there any longer.
Final score:
59points
#17
I worked for criminal attorneys for 22 years. I have many stories. But the creepiest story I can remember is about a young man who came in to see one of our biggest criminal attorneys.
I put him in a conference room and shut the door. I went back to my desk which had a window in front of it that looks straight out onto the conference room. One minute I looked up and I met eyes with that guy and I have never felt something so creepy in my entire life. It was he was off. The attorney came out and met with him and left, after I told the attorney what I felt. And he said well you have every right to feel that way because he murdered three people and he is out on appeal.
Final score:
59points
#18
I worked in a nightclub as a waitress and had an old (very drunk) guy order a glass of breastmilk from me......I was 19 and had no kids.
Final score:
55points
#19
My lecturer related this to me.
When she was working late into the night, she was getting ready to pack up when she saw a colleague. they talked for a while and she left down the staircase since there was only one staircase, and the lift was out of order. She then was walking out of the gate when she saw the exact same colleague there, heading off back home. She suspects the one she met upstairs wasn't her colleague
Final score:
52points
#20
I worked in an old courthouse for a while. We had our department records in the basement. No one wanted to go to the basement by themselves, as many people believed it to be haunted. (It was primarily used for storage.) It mostly didn't bother me, but there was one part of the basement that always made me feel uncomfortable.
After I left that job, some courthouse employees rediscovered the city gallows, which had been stored in that part of the basement.
Final score:
52points
Eglė Bukauskaitė 2 years ago
:O Generally the dead cannot do any harm, so there is literally no need to be scared
#21
I'm not sure if this really qualifies, but I was stationed on Hickam AFB which is adjacent to Pearl Harbor so it was also attacked during the raid. A lot of the base was preserved as is for historical reasons. The break room in the hangar I worked in had a giant metal cross beam riddled with bullet holes from Japanese Zeroes.
Final score:
48points
#22
I used to work for the local historical society in the basement of the oldest building in the city (Boise, Idaho). There was literally a bunch of stuff from Indian burial grounds all over the place. It was purported to be haunted. There were rooms that still had calendars on the walls from the early 80s, and looked straight out of a horror movie. Did I ever see anything spooky?
Nope! Not a thing!
Then I get a job at an insurance company in a brand new building and suddenly there are weird things all over. One conference room, in particular, is famous amongst the night crew because you'll always come around the corner to see a girl/woman going into it, but then there's no one inside when you get there. Automatic lights don't even turn on.
My theory is that all the electronics and sensors and such are creating EMFs that confuse the mind (as seen in lab tests), but deep down I like to think there's actually a haunting going on.
Final score:
43points
AngelWingsYT 3 years ago
Could be a haunting. Just cause its new doesnt mean it cant be haunted
#23
The basement of my parent's shop is really creepy. Several times I think I've seen someone down there when I was the only person on that floor. I used to think it was a trick of the light or something, but once I could have sworn it said my name. To be fair, it could have been one of those auditory illusions, but still. Creepy. I try not to go down there alone anymore.
Final score:
41points
#24
Open plan office, hundreds of workers. Someone s**t on the floor.
Final score:
38points
Steve Barnett (Submission author) 3 years ago
True story. Random act by someone. They defecated in a corridor meters away from me and my co-workers. It wasn't an 'accident', it was deliberate. No-one was caught.
#25
I was on a pizza delivery and this house was way in the back of a field. There was space to walk up to the house, but the grass was really grown up and the sides. I was going back to my car and all of a sudden I heard a rattle in the tall grass. I didn't know if it was a snake or not, but it took everything inside of me not to start running.
Final score:
37points
#26
First job besides babysitting. For 6 weeks, I was sitting at the reception desk at a private club. I was 15, and the co-worker I interacted with the most was a 73-year-old Irish man.
One day, he asks what I like in school. I tell him I love biology, all animals, and the diversity and adaptations of living beings fascinate me. He answers something I don't quite understand, I think he's asking for an example, so I tell him it started with a book on dinosaurs I had when I was 6.
He answers very sharply about fossils being fake. I don't understand what he means, I tell him, no no, I have some at home, and I've seen some at the museum. He starts rambling about how the world is 4000 years old, and anyone with a shred of intelligence should know that, and that fossils were put on the earth as a test of one's faith. As he unfurled all of this on me, he was becoming more and more red in the face, and he moved in quite close to me, and I was really shaken up, I thought for sure he'd slap me.
He stormed off outside and I took refuge at the back of the bistro with the waitress.
Also creepy at that place: a 35-year-old cook who would wait for me on the sidewalk to forcefully hug me every day as I walked back to the metro.
And the fact that as a "woman" (girl), I wasn't allowed in the study and lounge rooms. I'd pop in as often as I could to tidy the newspapers, it was my excuse just because that rule irked me...
Final score:
37points
#27
Worked in a design agency located in a former Victorian Inn until our first lockdown in April 2020. Many odd things, mainly noises from the basement. We did lots of exhibitions and would build our own props and interactives there. Things would move on their own and stairs would creak despite nobody being there. Used to hate being the one to lock up in the dark or go in on a weekend alone. So many basement noises…
Final score:
36points
*Displayname*=idk 2 years ago
I don't like basements. I swore that I would never have one in my house,and if I did I would never go in it.
#28
I used to be a manager at a video store where this one guy worked, he’d always be super close to you and had no concept of personal space. It wasn’t just me he creeped out with his ways, he’d creep out the guys too... always following you around and just be super close. He never took a shower and smelled like hot cabbage.
Final score:
33points
#29
Working at a shop there was an aisle between two big work tables. Many times felt something brush my shoulder when I would walk up the aisle.
Final score:
32points
H.L.Lewis (Submission author) 3 years ago
Not me but a friend. They ran a small dairy and had an old milk can in the utility room. They kept hearing voices coming from it. They got rid of it!
#30
Night watchman. Empty theater. Reading Steven King. Smoke curls over pages. Freak. Cigarette.
What do you think ?
Gold Medal Dyke 3 years ago
At his very best, Ron was two tacos short. I didn't know him at all. I worked in Training, he in Fulfillment. In the four years I'd worked there, Ron and I had never exchanged more than a single word: "hi" or "hey" or "g'night" (with two exceptions). When a supervisor from Corporate sent me the thank-you gift of an enormous popcorn tin, I put it in the break room with a loud note: "EAT ME." That same day, Ron stomped to my desk and yelled, "You nasty girl! You're disgusting! I took that popcorn and threw it in the dumpster!" -- 😳 (No idea how he knew it was mine.) A few months later, I had an emergency hysterectomy and was in the hospital for four days. My family was there most of every day; my best friend was with me for several hours; my former girlfriend brought flowers with this card tucked in: "YOU LUCKY BITCH." 😂 I neither needed nor expected to see anyone else. The second night after surgery, I was falling asleep to Jeopardy! when I heard stompy footsteps and a jovial male voice: "Hey, Kim! Stopped bleeding yet?" The curtain was pulled back and there stood Ron. Stupid grin plastered on his face. He came over to the bed and put. his. hand. on. my. stomach. and yelled, "How ya feelin'? Came to check up on you!" It was indescribably creepy and so very gross. And I was powerless. I turned my head away and he started chattering. Then - du miracle! My nurse walked in. Her name was Terry and I'll never forget her. She assessed the situation at once. She read him the riot act and threatened to call security if he didn't leave immediately. She was my heroine. I wish I'd had a tape recorder. But christ . . . what a ghastly creep.
H.L.Lewis 3 years ago
It's amazing how many people do experience these types of things. Please people, don't be shy, tell us your stories!
AngelWingsYT (Post author) 3 years ago
Agreed! Been looking for signs of my work ghosty with no luck :(
Load More Replies...
Cat Palmer 2 years ago
I used to work in a building that was meant to be haunted by the ghost of a bus driver who had been killed on the site when it was a bus terminal. I never saw anything remotely ghostly, but the ghost liked to bring me pens - some mornings there would be a dozen or more on my desk and everyone else had none. (OK, so there's probably a perfectly good, non-spooky explanation, but I like to imagine the ghost carefully carrying pens one by one to my desk every night!)
Gold Medal Dyke 3 years ago
At his very best, Ron was two tacos short. I didn't know him at all. I worked in Training, he in Fulfillment. In the four years I'd worked there, Ron and I had never exchanged more than a single word: "hi" or "hey" or "g'night" (with two exceptions). When a supervisor from Corporate sent me the thank-you gift of an enormous popcorn tin, I put it in the break room with a loud note: "EAT ME." That same day, Ron stomped to my desk and yelled, "You nasty girl! You're disgusting! I took that popcorn and threw it in the dumpster!" -- 😳 (No idea how he knew it was mine.) A few months later, I had an emergency hysterectomy and was in the hospital for four days. My family was there most of every day; my best friend was with me for several hours; my former girlfriend brought flowers with this card tucked in: "YOU LUCKY BITCH." 😂 I neither needed nor expected to see anyone else. The second night after surgery, I was falling asleep to Jeopardy! when I heard stompy footsteps and a jovial male voice: "Hey, Kim! Stopped bleeding yet?" The curtain was pulled back and there stood Ron. Stupid grin plastered on his face. He came over to the bed and put. his. hand. on. my. stomach. and yelled, "How ya feelin'? Came to check up on you!" It was indescribably creepy and so very gross. And I was powerless. I turned my head away and he started chattering. Then - du miracle! My nurse walked in. Her name was Terry and I'll never forget her. She assessed the situation at once. She read him the riot act and threatened to call security if he didn't leave immediately. She was my heroine. I wish I'd had a tape recorder. But christ . . . what a ghastly creep.
H.L.Lewis 3 years ago
It's amazing how many people do experience these types of things. Please people, don't be shy, tell us your stories!
AngelWingsYT (Post author) 3 years ago
Agreed! Been looking for signs of my work ghosty with no luck :(
Load More Replies... Cat Palmer 2 years ago
I used to work in a building that was meant to be haunted by the ghost of a bus driver who had been killed on the site when it was a bus terminal. I never saw anything remotely ghostly, but the ghost liked to bring me pens - some mornings there would be a dozen or more on my desk and everyone else had none. (OK, so there's probably a perfectly good, non-spooky explanation, but I like to imagine the ghost carefully carrying pens one by one to my desk every night!)
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