About 12 years ago I worked for a large manufacturing company. About a year prior to the story I'm about to tell, the company had just completed construction on a new wing of the building in which I worked. My group had moved into this wing right after its completion. Our offices were on the second floor of the two story building. There were two women's restrooms in this new wing on the second floor.
Due to the type of business it was, they employed very few women. Roughly 20% of the employees were women, and 95% of those were in administrative positions which were located in another building. Because of that, I infrequently saw other women in my part of the building. This meant that when I used a restroom, there was usually nobody else in it. However, the building was built with optimism because there were five stalls and sinks in each women's restroom.
The arrangement of the restroom was such that you walked into the restroom through a door that was separated from the stalls by a wall on the left with an opening through it in which you could see the sinks aligned in a row and one large mirror covering the entire wall holding the sinks as you opened the restroom door. The sink faucets were the automatic type that require one to run their hands under them to activate the water. The stalls were also aligned in a row situated directly across from the sinks, so you could see the reflection of the stalls in the mirrors from the restroom doorway, before you even turned the corner into the main restroom area.
One day about a year after we had moved into this new wing, I went into the restroom and as I turned the corner I noticed the stall door closed on the middle stall. The floor under the door looked dark like someone's shadow was blocking the light. The stall doors naturally hung open halfway, so I assumed someone was in the stall. I went into the first stall instead of the second, in order to maintain some privacy by keeping a stall between us.
While in my stall, I listened and didn't hear the other person make any noise. No flushing, hand washing, and no sounds of the door opening, nor a person leaving. So when I finished up and went to wash my hands, I was startled when I looked up into the mirror and saw the third stall door wide open. Not even halfway open, but wide open!
I finished washing my hands, using the sink right across from the stall I had used and wondered if there had been an optical illusion when I walked in that made it appear as if that third stall door was closed. So as I was leaving, I stopped to turn around and look at that stall again to see if I could recreate the image I saw previously. However, when I looked back, the third stall still looked wide open, and furthermore, it was brightly lit because the room light was getting into it.
Just as soon as I saw that, the faucet of the sink right across from that stall automatically turned on full blast. My heart felt like it stopped and I was frozen in place, just staring at the water pouring out of the faucet! After about five seconds the faucet shut off. As soon as the water stopped, I got my senses back and I left the room as fast as I could!
I had never experienced the sink faucets in the restrooms turning on unattended before or since. I asked around and I couldn't find anyone nor did I hear of anyone else who had ever seen that happen there - in the men's or women's restrooms. I also never again saw the bathroom stall doors in any position except halfway open when unoccupied in the remaining five years I worked there.
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