Spooky stories from the MRA HQ

[MyRoute-app community]

At Halloween the realm of the living and the realm of the dead are supposedly closest to eachother, in other words: the echoes of spirits might be more active during this time. Now personally I hold no such beliefs but still… the planes of existence have shifted. Rather than having a spiritual basis, it’s most likely the fact that it no longer feels like we’re in that mundane part of the year where time seems unending and daily life runs on repeat. No, we’re now in that magical party-part of the year. It’s time to celebrate, whether it’s because of carved pumpkins and spirits, or because of trees with glittering decorations or because of champagne and fireworks. Really, in this part of the year anything goes.
In a somewhat different blogpost this time I’m sharing some notable spooky experiences I’ve had while occupying this office sometime since 2014. Feel free to share your own!

Locked out
I’m not sure if it’s an IT thing or just something of our company, regardless, we often worked until the night. The office back then was almost entirely vacant. To illustrate: we shared the entire floor with only one or two other one-man companies that were almost never in. It’s safe to say that after 18:00 there wasn’t a single soul left in the building. At 18:30 I locked the door, went out to smoke a cigarette and when I came back the key got stuck in the door. My car keys were inside and my phone was on the verge of dying. In an era where you’re continually engaged by phone pings and the internet it’s rather unsettling to send out a one-way SOS and wait for rescue in an abandoned old office building while the night falls.

Spooky sightings
A different time I heard some odd noises coming from the central stairwell when it was around 10 or 11 pm. I went to listen and didn’t hear anything, so I went back to continue to work. I got a few more hours in but couldn’t really focus because after checking I occasionally heard those noises again, people walking by and in general was feeling pretty unsettled. Eventually I packed my stuff and went for the elevator. Again some odd noises. As I got out of the elevator I was blinded by a bright light and loud banging noises. Scared the life out of me. The source was a duo of officers shining a flashlight inside and rapping their knuckles loudly on the glass. They agitatedly shouted things at me like “what are you doing here” and “come here”. As the main exit was closed I told them to go to the side exit, they refused and told me to open the main door (I can’t) eventually managed to convince them to go to the side exit because I’d be heading there as it really was the only exit. Apparently they’d gotten a call from someone that strange things were going on inside the building and stuff was seen being thrown around.

Our turn to creep people out
Now I haven’t always been the victim of creepy stuff. Sometimes I’ve unintentionally been the perpetrator as well. This one happened sometime in 2017 when development of the Navigation app was still in it’s early days. To test new builds, Daniël and I would occasionally hop in my car and attempt a ride. Now especially early on the build would fail as soon as we exited the parking lot, forcing us to turn around an try an on-the fly fix. Again, this stuff tended to happen late at night. At some time while we were processing a new build we saw the night-watchman enter the lot. Since it’d been some time and we knew him pretty well anyway, we took it as a good moment for a break and make some small talk. He had actually come in because of a call and asked if we’d seen anything suspicious. Trying to help we asked what exactly we should have seen. As it turned out, apparently there were some foreign looking guys doing suspicious things on a laptop in a car outside the office, maybe hacking or scouting the building for all the wrong purposes. As you can imagine we had a good laugh after that.

[Nick Carthew]

Like you Timo, I don't subscribe to any of that nonsense. I do however have a tale to tell:
We live in an old fishing village with very narrow lanes, some too small to fit a car in. It is very touristy because of its history and quaint old cottages. There are lots of tales of smuggling and pirates from the old days as well as the customary ghost stories of those lost at sea in shipwrecks. Someone has started taking tourists around the village at night on a spooky ghost walk. He shows them around all of the properties that have tales associated with them.
We have an alleyway (known as a drang) next to our cottage where 100s of years ago an old fisherman was found dead, hanging from an anchor chain coming out from a window. The old cottages here have very low ceilings which is why he did it outside. His ghost has been seen and heard on several occasions and so the ghost walk stops outside our cottage while the story is being told. Terry, who takes the walks is very good at his job and elaborates on all the gruesome details sending shivers down the spines of his entire group. We can stand in our front garden behind the walls and hedges and listen without being seen.
One evening a few years ago, we heard Terry coming up our lane with his group of eager ghost story fans. He stopped outside ours in his normal place and started his story. Halfway through and with his audience totally gripped; I rattled my motorcycle security chain and let out a little moan. Two of the women screamed and Hannah and I sniggered quietly behind our wall. We could here in Terry’s voice that he was just as surprised as his group was, possibly the two women screaming was to blame.
The next time I saw Terry we had a good laugh about it and asked if I would do it in future, he said he’d pay me! I declined and haven’t done it since. Perhaps if he has a tour this evening I might oblige him.
Picture of The Drang.

[Hans van de Ven MR.MRA]

@Nick-Carthew-RouteXpert said in Spooky stories from the MRA HQ:

Like you Timo, I don't subscribe to any of that nonsense. I do however have a tale to tell:
We live in an old fishing village with very narrow lanes, some too small to fit a car in. It is very touristy because of its history and quaint old cottages. There are lots of tales of smuggling and pirates from the old days as well as the customary ghost stories of those lost at sea in shipwrecks. Someone has started taking tourists around the village at night on a spooky ghost walk. He shows them around all of the properties that have tales associated with them.
We have an alleyway (known as a drang) next to our cottage where 100s of years ago an old fisherman was found dead, hanging from an anchor chain coming out from a window. The old cottages here have very low ceilings which is why he did it outside. His ghost has been seen and heard on several occasions and so the ghost walk stops outside our cottage while the story is being told. Terry, who takes the walks is very good at his job and elaborates on all the gruesome details sending shivers down the spines of his entire group. We can stand in our front garden behind the walls and hedges and listen without being seen.
One evening a few years ago, we heard Terry coming up our lane with his group of eager ghost story fans. He stopped outside ours in his normal place and started his story. Halfway through and with his audience totally gripped; I rattled my motorcycle security chain and let out a little moan. Two of the women screamed and Hannah and I sniggered quietly behind our wall. We could here in Terry’s voice that he was just as surprised as his group was, possibly the two women screaming was to blame.
The next time I saw Terry we had a good laugh about it and asked if I would do it in future, he said he’d pay me! I declined and haven’t done it since. Perhaps if he has a tour this evening I might oblige him.
Picture of The Drang.

[MyRoute-app community]

@Nick-Carthew-RouteXpert that's amazing . The Drang does look creepy and I can already see why there'd be lots of sightings here. From this perspective you can already see how the play of light and shadows might stimulate an anxious mind. (Take for example the man-like shadow on the top chimney).

Thanks for sharing!

[Nick Carthew]

@Timo-Martosatiman-MRA The picture is from the 40s, the scene today is a little different with fresh paint. But under the cover of darkness and a good story teller, the atmosphere is created.