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Coffee-shop ghost


ditchswitch

Paranormal Novice
Ok so here's my ghost story - I've had several paranormal-esque experiences, this was one of the most memorable and yet most mundane.

I was working at a local coffee-shop here in Denver called "Common Grounds" (so original) it's pretty well known here in town, and they have a second one by the same name down-town - this happened at the one in NW Denver. It was after we had closed, the front door was open, not standing open, but not locked. Another important detail was that the back door of the store had been locked, this door opened out to the alley outside. This was a lock that could not be opened except by a key. I always locked that back door right away because I didn't like the thought of anyone being able to come into the store after closing from the alley ouside These two entrances were the only two in the store - front and back door. At the time the following occurred - my co-worker was vacuuming in a section of the coffee-shop where she could not see the front door - and I was doing closing type sidework behind the counter - which is in full view of the front door, it is a fairly small shop. As I was working behind the counter a women came in the front door - and walked purposefully past the counter I was working behind, to the back of the store - and I heard her go into the bathroom in the back and shut the door. She did not look at me as she passed, her appearance was very mundane - she had brownish curly medium length brown hair - was wearing some kind of tee shirt - and sort of tight stretch pants. She was not really overweight - but somewhat rotund, definately not thin. At the time I thought nothing of it - I assumed she was a friend of my co-worker (people often had their rides - if they arrived early come in and hang out as we finished closing.) - there to pick her up or something and using the bathroom. After a bit my co-worker passed me by - she had stopped vacuuming and was doing other closing stuff - I asked her if she was expecting a ride and if she had seen the woman come in - she said no on both accounts, I wasn't suprised she hadn't seen the woman, as she had been vacuuming in another part of the shop. At this point - I revised my guess as to who the person was - now I assumed she was someone who had come in the store just to use the bathroom, possibly someone transient - or maybe even looking for a place to shoot up or something. And I began thinking of her as a possible
liability , just the awareness that there was a third person in the store who had been back in the bathroom awhile - and various scenarios began to occur to me - mostly involving - hoping she was not passed out or something, and that we would have to do something about her b4 completing closing obviously. It absolutely did not occur to me that she was anything other than a person - who I would have to deal with in some capacity. More time passed - and at this point I was listening pretty carefully - waiting to hear a door opening, And knowing pretty soon I was going to have to go back there and deal with her, and I also had not cleaned the bathrooms yet - which was part of our closing stuff. Finally I went back and the door to the women's restroom was closed - i knocked on it - no answer - knocked again, no answer. Completely prepared to see someone passed out - or deal with some wierdness - (not paranormal at all - regular strung out person drama) I went in, no one was there. Suprised - i went into the men's bathroom, that door was open, no one there either , and then - starting to feel a bit freaked I checked the storage room - and cleaning closet - no one was there. I asked my co-worker at the front of the store if she had seen anyone leave as i was in the back - she said no - and by that time she had locked the front door too, which we usually did for safety at a certain point. So there's my story - to this day it stand out in my mind as one of the most unexplainable experiences I have ever had. So there it is - to this day I will swear up and down that there was no way that she went past me when i was doing anythings else, the back door could NOT be opened without a key and was much heavier door anyway - and im sure it wasn't the d/Users/joeltagert/Desktop/cover_0_side1.jpgoor I heard shut. The only thing I can think of to this day was that perhaps she had her own key - but again I was listening like a hawk for the sounds and even with the vacuum running the sound i heard was a bathroom door shutting - not the heavier exit door being opened with a key - and then shut again.
I've never had an experience like it before or since - where all of my senses were very very clear about what I had seen and how completely inconsistent it was with going back there and not finding anyone. At the time, once I realized there was no one but the 2 of us in the store - I remember being very rattled - I've had lots of odd experiences - but nothing like this before.
 
ditchswitch,

That's an unsettling story, thanks for sharing it with us.

Some questions:

- Did you hear the front door actually open and close when she came in?

- Did you ever do research into what was in that space before the coffeeshop? Is it possible that someone either died or was killed in that store?

- Were there any windows that she could have climbed through to get out?

And DBTrek, someone is gracious and brave enough to share this kind of a story with us, and the best you can come up with is a lame joke?

dB
 
David Biedny said:
ditchswitch,
And DBTrek, someone is gracious and brave enough to share this kind of a story with us, and the best you can come up with is a lame joke?

dB

Take it easy dB, just trying to share a little Friday humor. The story sat here for a day with no replies, I wanted the poster to know that someone took the time to read what he wrote.

Obviously the lady did not flush herself down the toilet.

-DBTrek
 
"she" DB (; And I'm pathologically busy so I'm not so great at responding to threads in a timely fashion.

- Those are all great questions David! After thinking about it I do not remember whether I heard the front door open and close. My friend was vacuuming in the other room - so it's equally possible that she did and I didn't hear it - or that I heard the sound but didn't really note it as people sometimes came in after close and the experience wasn't registering for me as an odd one until I couldn't find her in the back. So the honest answer is I have no specific memory of whether the front door opened and shut or not, however I DO have a specific memory of hearing the bathroom door shut behind her.

- I never did research into any strange deaths there. They go through employees very very quickly - but so do most coffeeshops :) It is in a part of denver that is pretty old, fairly near downtown, so the buildings are definitely not at all new. One side note is that I am personally pretty sensitive to spaces, and I always have strong feelings of either positive - negative - or neutral energy in them. I have lived in and spent time in lots of different places (although I suppose everyone has) and there are some I always have felt at ease and comfortable in even late at night and alone - and others which I feel a sense of unease in and a few places I've lived in or spent time in which completely unnerved me - even in bright daylight. One example is a large home in Fort Collins Colorado I was working in - I cleaned houses for awhile in college - which I literally could not stand to be in, I felt choked and extremely fearful, and on one occasion I did not see - but sensed more strongly than I ever have in my life the presence of a small girl standing in the hallway behind me (not menacing - just there watching me) when I was cleaning windows in one of the upstairs rooms, this in broad daylight. I later found out the house had been the home of a couple who had many different sets of disabled foster children and who were later charged with mistreatment and neglect of them, I was part of a cleaning crew getting the home ready for re-sale, after they had vacated it. I don't know if there were any deaths. This was the only time I ever had any verification of the possible cause of any such feeling - but it was validating. Although unlike seeing the woman in the coffee shop - as I didn't actually "see" anyone the experience could have been some sort of psychological projection, a la jungian dream analysis - where the little girl could have been me experiencing a neglected or hidden part of myself - as a child. These ideas pop into my head to explain away experiences because I'm a big skeptic, but at the same time the intensity of the feeling in that house was so thick and tangible that I still remember it vividly to this day - and it is still an unnerving memory.

I'll say on a skeptical note that these experiences could be attributable just to something like the feng shui of a place - how sensitively it is built - whether it has bad angles - lots of entrances etc. I think that lots of things can contribute to how a place "feels", particularly the architecture.

- Lastly, there was only one window in the back but I'm fairly sure it is a window that does not open, just a sealed single pane. But I live only a few blocks from the coffeeshop and I will certainly check next time I am there.
 
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