Docking Yard Phantoms

By SmokeyKnight
(3 stories) (193 posts) (the author is a young adult)
Date: 2011-02-02
Country: United States
State: California
Paranormal Category: Haunted Places

I transferred from the Banning substation to a warehouse in Ontario, California. I had a rotating schedule, two nights a week I worked graveyard. I made good friends with my normal graveyard guy, and after a month or two we started noticing odd things. It started out with cold spots in certain areas of the docking yard. I noticed the first one on the west side of the docking yard. I started noticing odd flashes of light when the warehouse was closed, shadows inside the building moving too fast to be human, the porta potty door opening and closing on its own, odd reflections in the mirrors of my truck, etc.

My graveyard guy showed up one night to relieve me from duty and we started talking. Out of the blue, he starts asking me if I've seen anything weird. He described everything I had seen to that point. As we were discussing it, I started noticing the weird lights and cold spots. After about fifteen minutes, nothing else seemed to be going on. I went home, and came back the next afternoon.

I was sitting at the desk inside the warehouse at about 2030 (PST) when the last supervisor comes up to my desk and asks "was that you?" I was completely confused by his question, so I asked what he meant. He explained that all of his crew was gone (I verified via sign in sheet) and he heard a knock three times from one of the support beams. He said it was far too loud to have been the beam doing it on its own. He went on to explain that there were desks and such around his work area, so he thought maybe I was trying to pull a prank on him. As he was explaining, I noticed a shadow move at the back of the warehouse. I got up and started running to where the shadow had been, and I yelled back to have him check the security camera feeds. I couldn't find anything, and he didn't see anyone in the warehouse, but in playback saw the shadow. Sadly, the chief of security for that company is VERY uptight and won't let us copy that footage.

After we locked up (by now about 2130 local time), I went into the docking yard where my graveyard guy was waiting for me. The supervisor left, and we locked the gate. All the lights had been off inside and suddenly came on. There was a motion sensor to activate the lights, but it would trip the ADT alarm as well. No alarm went off, but the lights came on. We started seeing shadows and lights passing by the docking door windows erratically. We went to the window and looked in to see nothing out of the ordinary.

I decided to leave at about 2300, to get a call from my graveyard guy calling me five minutes later telling me the power went out. Almost every night this was a normal event.

Other hauntings by SmokeyKnight

Lights, Vibes, And Shadows

Spectre In Banning

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Comments about this paranormal experience

The following comments are submitted by users of this site and are not official positions by yourghoststories.com. Please read our guidelines and the previous posts before posting. The author, SmokeyKnight, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will read the comments and participate in the discussion.

DeviousAngel (11 stories) (1910 posts)

14 years ago (2011-02-17)

Darkness, thanks for the link you shared! I read the story. I'm not a religious person so I don't necessarily believe in the specific idea of angels and demons at war, but I do believe that it's very possible that there are spirits engaged in constant struggle. Over what? I cannot say. An opportunity to manifest? A promise of contact with a loved one? Who knows.

SmokeyKnight (3 stories) (193 posts)

14 years ago (2011-02-17)

Me and my buddy always felt uneasy in that docking yard. It may have been a warning, but fortunately nothing has happened to him there yet other than being scared. With any luck he'll transfer off of that post soon. I'm just glad I don't have to work there any more.

Spiritual warfare is a possibility. Very interesting thought. I'll talk with him and some other friends about the idea.

DARKNESS (3 stories) (2022 posts)

14 years ago (2011-02-16)

DeviousAngel: It's funny you mentioned spiritual warfare I was thinking about this the other day. It reminded of this story on this site which to me does give you an idea that this may very well be the case I will attach the link below.

Http://www.yourghoststories.com/real-ghost-story.php?story=10614

Sorry for the interuption to your page SmokeyKnight.

Dan

DeviousAngel (11 stories) (1910 posts)

14 years ago (2011-02-16)

Thanks Smokey, another well-told experience. I had one thought in particular about the comment where you mentioned your friend's SUV shifted gears on its own. Do you think this might have been an intelligent spirit trying to give him a not-so-subtle hint to get the heck out of there?

I have to wonder sometimes if there are battles between various spirits going on in places around the world, and maybe that's why we see the things we do. I know it sounds kind of far-fetched and Hollywood of me to say but there are so many incidents in which spirits "warn" people, it makes you go hmm...

SmokeyKnight (3 stories) (193 posts)

14 years ago (2011-02-07)

Sorry to post a second time in a row, but I had a thought on the residual energy.

Darkness- I think the residual energy comes from the fact there are so many people working in a place like that, so their energy kind of imprints to the area and during the "witching hour" manifest themselves the best. Granted, this stuff would happen at all hours of the night and morning... But I think it's just the remains of energy from times now gone. It may be energy from the current workers or people who worked there years ago. That's kind of my theory on residual energy in an active area like that. I'd imagine if you went to Madison Square Garden in NY with it totally empty after a long busy day you'd have a similar experience. I just can't attribute all of what I saw here or in Banning to residual energy.

SmokeyKnight (3 stories) (193 posts)

14 years ago (2011-02-07)

It was strange, because either right before or right after a night of activity it would be dead. Like whatever it was had spend all it's energy or was saving energy for what was to come.

taz890 (12 stories) (1380 posts)

14 years ago (2011-02-07)

again great story 😁
Work in security myself and totaly agree a "dead" night more freaky than when someting stange happens

SmokeyKnight (3 stories) (193 posts)

14 years ago (2011-02-07)

I didn't get along with the chief of security for that company. I tried to go around him for the video, but it all ended up in his lap at the end of the day. Nothing I've seen or heard suggests anything happened on the property, but then again I never really looked too hard since I live in that area. My guess would be either residual energy or something brought to the warehouse is haunted.

There were several nights where I would find cold spots. I'd walk a patrol and come into an area 2-3 feet around where I could suddenly see my breath as if I was smoking. The port-a-potty doors loved to open and slam shut on their own, especially on a still night. I worked there for over a year, and I noticed weird stuff only happened at night.

If you intend to check out the area, understand security does work there and there are cameras just about everywhere on the property. If you know Ontario (California) well, it's north of I60 between Haven and Millikin on Philadelphia (where Philadelphia and Mission intersect) on the south west side of the intersection. My associates still work there, so I don't suggest bothering them since they have a job to do.

There were also many nights where I didn't feel anything, almost like the whole area was dead. No cars, no air movement, nothing. It was unsettling on those nights.

Foggy nights also presented shadows and random lights from the yard where it couldn't be dismissed as a car passing by.

cosmogal926 (9 stories) (1223 posts)

14 years ago (2011-02-07)

These are some pretty good stories, makes me wonder what happened on that property. I agree with Darkness and DC about the video, it would have been great to see that. The SUV shifting on it's own would have freaked me out too. 😨 😲

DCinAZ (guest)

14 years ago (2011-02-07)

SmokeyKnight,
The SUV shifting on it's own would spook me if I was sitting right there watching it. And it's a shame you can't get a copy of that film, that would've been cool to watch. Would this happen to be in the area of the old wineries? Just wondering.

DARKNESS (3 stories) (2022 posts)

14 years ago (2011-02-06)

SmokeyKnight: Interesting stories these docking yards seem to have a lot of residual and intelligent energy lingering around. Do you have any idea why this would be the case? What is the building and lands history? It is a shame you can't get hold of the video footage would have been great to see.

Thanks for sharing.

Dan

SmokeyKnight (3 stories) (193 posts)

14 years ago (2011-02-04)

In talking with my friend (the graveyard guy) he reminded me of the other night he was sitting in his SUV in the docking yard and his vehicle shifted from Neutral to D4 on it's own. He said he had his left hand out the window smoking and had his right hand holding the phone while he was talking to me. I heard a pop sound and then a click on the phone and he told me what happened. He said the pop made him look down and he watched his selector lever move completely on it's own. Dude does a lot of performance work on vehicles and said he'd never seen anything like it before.

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