13 Facilities Stories to Keep You Up at Night

In the spirit of Halloween, we searched for the creepiest, strangest and inexplicable stories that operations experienced. Here are the best ones we found — including some from our own clients.

Halloween is a time of dress up and fun...but it also reminds us of the things that scare us.

Maybe it was a door that opened on its own, a stranger in the night or a room that gives visitors the creeps. All in all, it made us feel better to know that we could read these from the comfort of a well-lit room -- for now. Here are 13 creepy stories to keep you up at night.

From Dude clients...

Story #1

One of our techs was working at night in the science building. No one was in the building at the time. He was on the second floor and kept hearing persistent sounds (doors, footsteps, etc.) on this floor. He was angry that someone was up there when they weren't supposed to be, so he stood at one of the exits, where he could clearly see the other exit as well, and crossed his arms and stayed put. He was ready to wait it out and confront this person when they were ready to leave.

The sounds continued and no one appeared. Eventually, he radioed the police department and asked them to come down to help catch this person. Police officers arrived and they searched the whole floor – no one was ever found. In that same building, a police officer reported getting "chased out of the building" by a shadowy figure.

Story #2

We have a building that was built in 1894 and is still in use today. One particular night, while doing a fire watch in this building, I had the pleasure of pulling the graveyard shift and checking all three floors, including the attic space. I brought along my dog for company and she roamed the building with me until we got to the top floor and needed to check the attic. I was behind her and she stopped dead in her tracks and looked up at the corner of the attic.

No matter what I did or said, she was not moving and just staring. I felt the hair on my neck and arms stand up and decided that it might be a good idea to head back down to the lower floors. I told my replacement, who has been with the district for 40 years, what happened and he said that there had been reports of images being seen in this building by people passing by the building when no one was there, especially on the third floor. Who knows?

Story #3

During Hurricane Matthew, one of our buildings was damaged to the point where we had to vacate the property. Around Halloween last year, one of the maintenance guys was driving by to check on the building. Everyone was supposed to be out, but here's what he saw:

It is the blades of a window air conditioner on a frosty morning.

Story #4

I am a facilities manager. Our facilities shut down over the holiday break so I go in from time to time to check on things. I was in one of the buildings and thought I heard someone in the men's bathroom. I called out but no one answered. I went to open the door, and as I reached out to touch the door, the automatic door opener activated and [opened on its own]. There was no one inside the bathroom.

...and beyond.

Story #5

I work nights in the locked unit of our nursing home…It’s a very large three-story building, and this wing is in an isolated half of the top floor. Nobody likes working back there, especially at night because the patients are harder to take care of and let’s be real, it does get spooky back there.

I hear a man shout, "Hey, come over here" from the dead end of a hallway. No men on that hall and all patients asleep. No TVs on, no radios, no logical explanation. Found out when I told someone the story there was a patient who died right before I started that would come to the door and call for help just like that. They even described the voice the patient had and it matched what I heard.

Reddit user Jenesaisquoi4

Story #6

I work in a large hospital, we have cameras everywhere. One night, one of our officers notices a door opening at the back of the building. The door is locked from the outside and has a push bar to open it. She rewound the footage, and you can see the push bar being pushed in and the door swing open on its own. It’s extremely unnerving to watch.

Reddit user TheBgrey

Story #7

I was a janitor at a local gym. I was mopping the floors and had my back to the door (listening to my iPod). I turned around, and there was a man dressed in a super sketchy dollar store UPS costume. He had his face pressed to the glass, smiling and tapping on the window with one finger. Scared the **** out of me. He said to let him in to deliver a package. Mind you, it's 1:30 AM. I said **** that and called the cops. They found him trying to break into a house down the road.

Reddit user PINHEADLARRY5

Story #8

Working in a nursing home. A man just died in one of the rooms, which was now empty. All night, the lights flickered, and the call light kept turning on by itself. Likely it was just electrical problems, but it was still creepy.

Reddit

Story #9

This was years ago, and it wasn't even dark. I worked at this place a long time ago, and I’d stay and clean up the main area every day.... vacuum, take out trash, etc. I was usually the last one to leave. As I was vacuuming, I heard one of the toilets flush, and then the sink. I waited and nobody came – I’m supposed to be the only one there. I went to check out the bathroom but there was nobody there. Then, it happened again, same thing. Toilet flushed and water turned on.

Reddit user valeceb

Story #10

I used to work overnights at a hotel. Usually, most of the stuff I dealt with was gross, not scary. But, one night right around Christmas, I was filing papers, alone, at the front desk. The automatic doors opened but nobody came through. The doors closed and about 20 seconds later, all the ornaments on the lobby Christmas tree were swinging, like a gust of wind blew through them. That scared the **** of out me because I was standing about 10 feet from the tree and there was absolutely no wind that night.

After the other ornaments had stopped, this one candy cane ornament near the bottom of the tree kept swinging very quickly for 45 minutes. I went over to see if there was a draft or something, but as soon as I got behind the counter, it stopped cold. My coworker was present for the swinging and the cold stop, and the rest of the night we didn't do anything else alone!

Reddit user slacker1985

Story #11

I used to work third shift at a factory…Had some unexpected downtime so everyone headed out to the dock. Talking, laughing, waiting. All of the sudden, this dude appears from the darkness wearing a full suit.

Now, to put this into perspective...there isn't anything around us. It's an industrial park. And there are only a few places that even have a third shift nearby. And none of them are adjacent to our facility. And he didn't approach from the direction of the parking lot. It was like he came out of the woodsy patch that separated us from the electronics factory.

He says, "Excuse me, I just want to know if you guys are hiring."

"Uh, yeah, what kind of job are you looking for?"

He just shrugs. "Doesn't matter."

I tell him to contact HR. Phone number is on the front sign. He thanks me and then walks back into the darkness and we can hear him as he's crunching through dried leaves as he disappears into the patch of woods. It was 3 AM.

Reddit user VenBede

Story #12

I was standing in a room cleaning a whiteboard, and suddenly I heard what sounded like a little girl laugh behind me (this was a university, so there shouldn't have been any kids in the building and the building was closed anyway). What really freaked me out is I could hear footsteps running down the hall toward the door for the basement, but instead of sounding like kid feet it sounded like something that weighed 400 pounds was running at a full sprint.

Reddit

Story #13

This isn't fair, because I work night shift in a psych facility. Basically, I've seen a lot of things working at night. From people coming in high and psychotic, to people huddling naked in the corner of a room whispering.

Scariest thing I have ever seen was a patient coming out to the nurses’ station and saying someone is outside of their window looking in. From admission, they had been experiencing pretty strong hallucinations so we assumed this was another one. To provide some ease, we went into the room to verify that there was no one there and provide them some relief and comfort.

We have removable draw curtains in rooms and they were shut. I walked up to it and asked if it was this window. The patients told us that it was. I drew it open and had quite possibly the biggest scare of my life.

THERE WAS SOMEBODY THERE WIDE EYED AND STARING RIGHT BACK AT US THROUGH THE WINDOW.

He ran off when we saw him, and we ended up calling the police as well as security. They never found the guy, and we never saw him again. Still creeps me out to this day.