This is my first time posting. I just thought I would share a couple of strange occurrences that I have experienced while working my job. I'm a night watchman at a local dog track. I'm the only one here at nights. I work the overnight shift from 11 p.m. To 7 a.m. My job is to patrol the dog track, inside and out, looking for any degenerate gamblers, hooligans; thieves or homeless folks that like to try to spend the night, hidden in one of the many areas throughout the track. This is a very big, very old building, with lots of history and many different areas and floors to patrol. This dog track has been active since 1935.
During my 2 years as night watchman, I have heard some unexplained noises/sounds. I'll be the first one to chalk up an unexplained noise as an old building settling or an outside noise of some kind. I am, for the most part, not a nervous nelly. I don't worry about every boom and bang that I hear throughout the night, and I heard many.
One night, I was walking through the track, doing my rounds. I was upstairs in the dance floor area. I walked up the outside staircase and unlocked the outer doors to the dance floor. All the lights were off and it was pitch black up there. I only carry my keys and my flashlight for protection. I started walking towards the dance floor. My flashlight was not powered on yet. I was still getting the key out of the lock, and trying to get the ring of keys into my pocket. I started walking towards the completely blacked out dance floor when directly in front of me, a white light appeared. It was flying slowly through the air, and away from me. It was about the size of a nickel. I can't really remember if it was circular or not. It happened so quickly, and was gone so quickly. It was small, glowing white light. It stayed lit for about two full seconds. This glowing light was literally 3 feet in front of my face. It was flying about 5 feet off the ground, and was about chest level with me. It then went completely black. I just stood there in astonishment and said, "What the heck was that?" That wasn't exactly what I said, for the record.
I stayed there for 5 or 6 minutes straight, in the complete darkness, not making a sound, looking for this thing again. I thought at first, it had to have been a firefly. Even though I knew it couldn't be a firefly, because this was February in New England. It was about 20 degrees outside that night. Not to mention the fact that this area is completely locked and sealed at all times. I waited in the complete darkened out dance floor, watching for this light to reappear, but it didn't. At this point my heart was beating very fast, because I know that I had to continue walking through this area, and finish up my round. My first instinct was to turn around and go back to the front desk, but my boss sounds off if I miss/skip a round. I finished up my round. I continued on with my round; I didn't see anything else out of the ordinary.
Another night, I was again walking through the abandoned dance floor area and I could hear what sounded like people talking. I started walking towards the bar; it seemed like it was getting louder from the bar area. I hopped over the bar top, behind the counter, being completely quiet. Sure enough, I could hear what sounded like people having a conversation, but with an ambient sound in the background. What I thought it sounded like was, almost like an old ambient dog track sound. It sounded like the noises of ticket machines, people betting and having a conversation, all at once. I couldn't make out a thing of what anyone was saying, but I could hear it plain as day. It lasted for a couple of minutes.
It sounded like it got louder, the lower to the floor I got. I finally came to the conclusion that it must be a TV that had been left on overnight, which was a floor below us. So, I walked through the rest of the dance floor and finished up the rest of my round. On the way back to the front desk, I went to the area right below the dance floor. There were no TV's on at all; it was completely quiet.
On another night, I was doing my rounds downstairs in the clubhouse of the track. This is where the majority of the betting takes place. It was about 2:30 in the morning. I heard a very familiar sound; it was the sound of a greyhound dog barking and howling. It echoed throughout the whole quiet building and actually made me jump, because I know there are no dogs in the track at night. I walked down through the Paddock, which is the only place where dogs would be, if there were any at all. All greyhounds are held in the Paddock prior to race time. I checked all the dog cages and there were no dogs. This bark and howl I heard, echoed in the quiet halls of the dog track. I don't believe it was an outside noise or dog, only because I was deep inside this closed off building.
In a related story, my co-worker of 10 years is the lure operator at the dog track. The lure operator controls the motor and rabbit that the dogs chase during the race. One day we were running practice schooling races, for the greyhounds to train. While the lure operator was operating the lure, he said that during the race he glanced back quickly because he thought he saw something. He said he saw a pack of "ghost dogs" running around the backstretch, around the far turn and finally crossing the finish line. They were running behind the real dogs that were chasing the rabbit. He actually said that he panicked because he thought that some of the dog trainer's other dogs had gotten loose and jumped onto the track. My co-worker said these ghost dogs disappeared as soon as they crossed the finish line. I have known this guy for 10 years, he's 55 years old and he's never told me a lie. When he told me that story, I told him that I have been hearing an occasional dog barking and howling, when I walk through this building at night. He says it's probably the ghosts of the thousands dogs that have raced and died at this track since 1935, I would have to agree with him.
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