Mountain Man
By Derek McNeill, Engineering Supervisor
My aunt and uncle invited myself and my cousin to go to my aunt’s family’s cabin the mountains. I was there years ago as a kid, before they added a security camera and a video intercom to discourage break-ins. That Friday night in November, she was there alone. My uncle, my cousin, and I got stuck in the snow after leaving work, so we let her know we would be there in the morning.
She settled in, tried to unwind by playing with her phone, but the internet was pretty slow so she decided to make a nice dinner for herself. She was in the kitchen when she heard heavy footsteps and a knocking at the door. It took probably 20 seconds to get there, but as she passed the intercom on the living room wall she saw no one was standing there waiting for her. She got to the door and unlocked it but left the chain attached, then opened to see if anyone was outside. She saw footprints coming from her car, and also footprints heading off to the east side of the cabin. That’s when she heard someone at the window, trying to open it.
It was locked, but clearly this wasn’t someone who had arrived for tea. She quickly and quietly closed the door and relocked it. The curtains at the window were closed so she couldn’t see outside. Then she heard someone at the second east window, also with curtains closed. The next window was the kitchen window.
Acting without really thinking she raced to the kitchen window, hoping to catch a glance of the would-be intruder. The curtains were open because she was just there enjoying the last remaining light as the night settled in. She caught a glimpse of the…. man.
His face was partially covered by his long hair, gray and brown, and soaking wet. She could see dark purple circles around his unfocused bloodshot eyes. His massive muscled arms were raised, covered in wet dark hair against his pale skin, as he tried to open the window. Facing him she yelled out with all her strength, “honey grab the shotgun!” She was alone, but hopefully the man wouldn’t know that. He could have heard her, but he made no sign that he did. That was when she noticed he was not wearing a shirt.
Her mind raced as she tried to think of what to do next. Was he high? Was he insane? Or did he simply not care if she had a gun?
She remembered where her phone was, on the edge of the couch I’m the living room where she left it. She grabbed it and ran upstairs, frantically calling 911. I wish we had a recording of this call.
911 Operator: “Nine one one what is your-”
My aunt: “There’s a naked Mountain Man trying to break into my cabin!”
911 Operator: [Audibly drawing a breath], “what is your address?”
My aunt gave the address.
911 Operator: “We’ll get someone out there as soon as possible. Be quiet and find a place to hide, make sure all the windows are locked. You are not the first person to report him.”
She set the phone down, but instead of putting it in speaker mode, she accidentally hung up. Her eyes went from window to window checking each to see them locked. She heard a loud clang of the aluminum ladder hitting the roof, she recognized it from the sound of my uncle gleaning the gutters a few weeks prior before the first snow. Then she heard footsteps on the roof.
She realized the call had ended and called my uncle. He didn’t answer. Again she called. No answer. Footsteps on the roof. Again she called. Mountain Man was clearing the snow off the skylight. No answer. The skylight shook and the room boomed from a strong kick.
She hid. For 10 long minutes she hid, not daring to make a sound. She heard footsteps on the roof, and then nothing. Another 10 minutes went by. No sound. Another 10 minutes? She heard the intercom ringing.
It was a woman. “I’m the Sheriff’s deputy, I got here as quick as I could.” My aunt doesn’t really remember this part, but they walked around the house together. Footsteps were mostly covered by the falling snow, but there were footsteps. There were no clear boot tracks. There was no other car, just my aunt’s and the deputy’s. The ladder was still propped up on the roof ledge. No broken glass, but each window had footprints below. The deputy measured one footprint in deep soft snow, then took a picture. “That’s at least size 13.”
Satisfied he was gone, the deputy stayed for a while until she got another call. She followed the deputy until the highway, then drove off to where my uncle’s car was stopped, stuck in the snow.
She has not been back to the cabin. And to be honest, neither have I.
Haunted Forklift & Stranger at the Door
By Michael Hoyt, Production and Repair Manager
Haunted Forklift
Back in the day, Production worked overtime frequently. We would easily worked late till 9:00 or so. One night, I decided to call it an early day, but 2 of my other coworkers continued to stay late.
As the story goes, they knew that they were the only ones in the building at the time, but heard the horn on the forklift sound off (beep, beep). However, at the time, the horn didn’t work and they knew that. So, they went out to the warehouse to check around to see if anybody was out there. They heard the forklift horn again, so they decided to head towards it.
It was being charge at the time, but as they approached, it moved a couple of feet in front of them. It freaked them out so bad that they turned around and got the hell out of the building FAST! From that point on, they wouldn’t work pass 7 p.m. and I had to be there with them. Needless to say, they would never go into the warehouse after 7 or if it was dark out.
Stranger at the Back Door
Back in the day, the Production department was in a different building, behind the Aiphone corporate building.
On one particular winter night. Paul Hefty and I were working overtime late in the evening when we heard noises coming from the front office door. The Production staff knew that there was a hidden door release switch, so we didn’t need a key to enter the building.
Needless to say, we walked to the front office door (it was an all glass door) and didn’t see anybody. We then, opened the door and looked outside…and no one was out there. I remember it being cold, slightly windy because the leaves were blowing around in the light. We looked at each other thinking, “how strange?”, then we heard noises coming from the back door.
We headed towards the back door. As we left the front office then around a corner, a person that we never seen before was right in front of us. It was your classic “fight or fright” moment.
Hefty put up the his fists and yelled “What the…!” (You’ll have to get with him for the exact words, I don’t quite remember.)
Unfortunately for me, instead of “Fight or flight”, it was a fright moment for me. I just froze and couldn’t move!!!
Crap, if this was a horror movie, I’d be the dead guy, how disappointing! So, if you’re working late make sure Hefty is with you and not me!
As it turns out. The guy was a substitute office cleaner. Our usual person was on vacation that week.
Phantom Intercom Ring
By Clark Landguth, US Inside Sales & Support Manager
Early on in my Aiphone Career, I would take both Customer Service and Tech Support Calls. It was late in the afternoon and not too many people around. The phones weren’t too busy, and a call came in.
“Aiphone Customer Service, How Can I assist you?”
“My darn intercom keeps ringing through the night and there’s nobody at the door”.
I darted through my notes from training…to see if I could find anything remotely like that…and unfortunately, couldn’t. So, I asked if he could send the unit in for evaluation…he wasn’t exactly thrilled, but…obliged and we received the unit the following week.
Working at Aiphone, sometimes you get several opportunities to cross-train in different areas, and it happened that I was also learning how to check in Repairs, and recognized the guy’s name when the unit came in.
Being curious minded, I asked the repair tech about the unit, it was an older one that I hadn’t seen yet. He got this mischievous grin on his face and said “Do you want to see what’s wrong?” “Heck yes” I said. I’m an inquisitive person who likes to learn new things. He handed me an odd looking tool, and advised me to open up the station, there was a single screw underneath, and it was an easy open”
I’m not sure if I’ll ever get this image out of my mind… a nest of spiders recently hatched, with the little critters crawling all over and their webs wound around every possible millimeter of that unit. I’m pretty sure the unit ended up on the floor or across the room as spiders exited en masse. To this day, I try not to spend much time in the repair department!
Story of the Inexplicable
By Carleen Wellman, Senior Graphic Designer & Marketing Specialist
One time I was trying to plug in a monitor to have a second screen at my work station. The monitor was old and I wasn’t sure it was going to fire up. Of course, to get to the outlet, I had to make my way through a jumbled mess of existing equipment and cords. To my avail, there was ONE spot open in the power surge protector. So I plugged in that bad boy and made my way back to civilization (out from under my desk). The IT department knows what I’m talking about when it feels like you have to be a contortionist just to reach those outlets.
Luckily, the monitor worked without a hitch. At least it did for three entire days. On the fourth day, the monitor would not power up. So I figured it finally fried. As I made my way back into the cord jungle to unplug the monitor, I was astonished to discover I never plugged it in. Instead, the black cord I grabbed was for the DVD reader we use for our Marketing archives. Nearly identical cords. But when the monitor powered on right away, I assumed I had the right cord from the get go. Nope. Can’t explain how my monitor, which requires a power source (and isn’t battery operated) worked for three days without one.
Haunting Sales Presentation
By Mike Streeter, Business Development Representative
It was late afternoon in early June, I had an IX sales demo in a town in Western Massachusetts. Since Covid-19 was in effect and schools were shuttered, I was to meet at the elementary school gym for my product demo and sales pitch.
I was led into the school and told to set up in the gym where a table was present for my gear and a screen and camera was set up for the zoom conference where some other people were to attend remotely.
The district IT manager, let’s call him Mark, said he would be back in about 20-25 minutes and we would start the intercom product meeting shortly thereafter, as scheduled. Mark left the building, and I was alone in the circa 1900 school to get my gear and PowerPoint ready to go.
The sounds of my activities echoed in the empty old wooden floor gym, made smaller by a floor to ceiling walled partition splitting the room in half with my table and projection gear at the foul line of the basketball court, the backboard raised up toward the ceiling, as often is when the court is used for other activities, like and Aiphone Demo and master sales event!
Not long into my set-up, I heard children chatter in the distance. I did not think much about it as perhaps the outside playscape was being utilized by the town’s kids. Then I heard footsteps echoing on the hard maple floor. You know, the type of old floors that even have that distinctive squeak under foot? It seemed to be coming from the other side of the partition. I shouted out, “Hello! There are plenty of empty seats in here, you can get a front row seat!” No response. But the footsteps continued, and it sounded like maybe 2 participants. I turned around and they immediately stopped. At that point, it sounded like they were maybe 20 feet or less from me, so whoever it was, or whatever they were, would have now been on my side of the partition and in plain sight! Nothing! Immediately, my laptop, IX demo and the screen all went dead. Yes, even my laptop screen went black- so if it were just a power issue, it would have continued to operate on battery- but it didn’t!
I would guess, about 15 seconds later, all powered back up like nothing happened. Mark soon arrived, with about 4 others from school board, maintenance and budget committee.
I gave the overview, demo and we had discussions with those in person and on Zoom and when all was concluded, a successful meeting. I said nothing of the events to anyone during that meeting. Once I was all packed up, I said to Mark, half joking, “so you like leaving salesmen alone in the building with the ghosts?” The expression on his face told me he didn’t find it humorous. It was a look of astonishment. “I’ve been here at times and the hair on the back of my neck, arms, legs- everywhere stand on end.” I told him about the footsteps and the strange “power outage” of the equipment. He told me there was a janitor who refused to work at this school. Teachers have heard things. Things go missing. Then reappear, days weeks or months later right where they were left before. Mark said there was even a 3rd grade student who wandered into the principal’s office one day. “Remember back in school, you used to walk single file under the lights when going from class to class or class to cafeteria, gym and what not? Well, when this student appeared at the principal’s office, he asked, “Can I help you?” She replied, “I don’t know, I was just following the 2 kids in front of me”. There were no other kids there!
So that is my spooky sales demo story. Oh, when I got home, looked at my IX-MV7HB history log of the IX-DV calls during the meeting, it showed faint images of children all around! OK- that part is not true- I would have shared this story sooner if that were the case!
The After Life?
by Bob DiRico, Business Development Representative
My story is not scary but very, very interesting (if true). I met with one of our dealers, I will refer to him as “he” throughout the story. I met with him a couple weeks ago and took him to lunch after the meeting. It turns out we grew up in the same area, had a lot in common, and went to rival high schools (he was full of stories).
The story goes, one day 20+ years ago he got a call from his 92-year-old grandmother who lived in Florida. He told me she was as sharp as a whip and in great health. The first thing she said to him was I am afraid to die, he replied “what are you talking about” “you are the healthiest 92 year old I know” she then said “I want to see you”, “come down and visit me” so the next day he flies to Florida to meet with his grandmother.
They spend a few days together and before he is about to leave, she plays her favorite song and asks him to dance with her. He told me he was a bit confused but danced with her anyway. As he was leaving her house, she tells him one last story. After I die, you are going to see a big bright star in the sky and a large ball fire heading toward the star. This will mean everything is ok and I made it to heaven. He didn’t think anything of it and the next day caught his flight back home (told his family the bright star story).
A few weeks later his grandmother passed, but what she did not tell anyone was that she was diagnosed with cancer, and that was the reason she was afraid to die. It finally all made sense to him.
Feeling very depressed the week after she died, “he” said to his wife let’s go to Great Adventure with the kids (two sons) this weekend to get our minds off of everything. The wife agrees and they head to the park the next day.
Fast forward to the end of their park adventure, “he” told me at the end of the day around dusk, “he” and his wife and two boys were on the log flume headed up the ramp. At the top of the ramp his son says to him “look dad there is the bright star grand mom told you about, “he” told me he looked to his right and saw a large ball of fire heading toward the star (coincidence, maybe, he couldn’t believe what was happening).
The clincher to this story is the park just happened to be playing the song he danced to with his grandmother, when he went to visit her in Florida.
I know this is not a scary story, but I found it to be very fascinating.
Fuzzball Footage
By Susan Spiker, Web Analyst
A Late Night Visitor
I had an interesting adventure with the un-reality back when my kids were about 6 years old.
It was fall, the wind was up, and it was the evening. My only mission was to get my kids to settle down and go to sleep. It was that time of evening whereby I expected no visitors.
About 30 minutes after the kids were tucked in and settled, my daughter came out and said there was a little girl outside who wanted to come in.
“What?” I asked. No one had knocked or activated the video intercom, in any way. So, I reassured my daughter that she was only imagining. Honestly, I thought she had upped her game to stay up later. I whisked her back to bed.
About 15 minutes later, she comes back out and looked extremely upset. “Mom, there’s a little girl out there and she wants to come in. She keeps talking to me and tapping on the window. She is cold and by herself. I am concerned. Can’t we just let her in? Call her mom?”
My articulate 6-year-old tells me, hands on the hips and everything. I am thinking, it’s like 9:30pm! Who would let their kid play outside at this time in this rainy cold weather?
I look out the windows, no knocks, nothing. But I had an unsettling feeling. Do not open the door! You know—that deep inside your gut, type instinct.
Ghosts or Rain?
So, I check the video. Crap—fuzzy orb balls is literally what I see. Rain? Reflection? Whatever. Now my hairs are standing up on my arms.
So, I go into her room and we looked out the window, together. She says with astonishment, “she’s gone! I think she’s scared of you, Mom”.
Mom’s work is never done…I tucked her back into bed, reassuring her that maybe she went back into her house. I also ask that if she sees her again, to ask her to come to the porch and ring the doorbell.
I leave her room, to run to another room and spy…. My gut instinct is totally on fire with creepy feelings.
It’s getting near 10 p.m., when my daughter comes back out – tears streaming down her face, saying “the old man took her! She doesn’t like him and doesn’t know him!”
I shot out that door, looking around. Nothing.
Little did she know, I reviewed the video footage of the yard and the porch– nothing but a fuzzy orb ball that appeared to move back and forth, side to side, appearing to come towards the window. And then it darted off with another fuzzy orb ball. Zoom. All of which I attributed to raindrops and reflections on the lens.
Or was it?
Left Alone in the Office
by Joy Sweet, Senior Manager Technical and Customer Services Customer Service
Way back in the “Aiphone olden days”, Tech Support was in the back area where Repair ended up, before the lunchroom was even built. I was working long hours one summer, into the evenings many nights. Since my office was way in the back, I was cut off from the rest of the office.
I guess whoever left last didn’t know I was still there, so they apparently set the alarm. At one point, I went up to the front of the building to use the bathroom, then went back to my desk to keep working.
It was a couple minutes later when a Bellevue PD Squad car pulled up into the parking lot. I looked out and saw them, and wondered, “I wonder what they’re doing here?” They started walking up the sidewalk so I went to the door to greet them. “What’s going on, Officer?”, I ask innocently. He said, “well, we received an alarm from this location and no one answered the phone when we called to check, so we had to come by and see what was going on!”
Imagine my shock!! I had no idea someone had set the burglar alarm system with me still in the building, so I set off the alarm when I went up to the restroom! Once I realized what happened, I freaked out and didn’t want to be there anymore.
I actually set off the alarm one other time too, after dark on a Friday night. I went back to the office for something, and tried to disarm the alarm, but was not successful. The alarm started going off and I was frantically trying to find how to call the police and tell them it was a false alarm!
Needless to say, I never liked being the last one in that office. I was always afraid I would be in the bathroom and get locked into that vestibule area, where the front door and both side doors were locked during non-business hours. Thankfully I never got locked in there but it was always a fear and good reason to not be the last one there!
Brad, meet Bill, our Resident Ghost
Brad Kamcheff, Aiphone Marketing Manager
In 1989, I was a fresh-faced nineteen–year–old excited to start my new job with Aiphone in the shipping department. The first thing I learned was that Aiphone’s warehouse was set up in three areas; a picking room, where we fulfilled orders; a front warehouse, used for storing inventory of our most popular items; and a back warehouse for the less popular items. The second thing I learned is that my fellow shipping clerks did not like going into the back warehouse. Especially when we were in early or working late. It wasn’t long before I learned why.
It’s Just Bill – Get Back to Work!
A shipment of items with a back log of orders had arrived from our parent company. We were all asked to come in early to fulfill them and many of those orders had other items. So, it wasn’t long before I was sent to the back warehouse to resupply our picking room. As I was locating the proper box I felt tapping on my shoulder. Three clear distinct and insistent taps in rapid succession. I was so surprised I let out a yelp and jumped about a foot in the air. When I came down, I spun around to see who had snuck up and scared me. To my surprise there was no one there. I snapped my head around a few times before catching my breath and decided that my coworkers must be playing a prank on me. I was instantly livid and stormed back into the picking room.
“Which one of you jokers thinks it’s funny to sneak up behind me like that?!”
Everyone stopped working and turned toward me. I met their surprised looks one by one, Earl first, then Keith, and finally my manager Joe. Joe broke the spell. “Go back and get that case of PD-2s. That’s just Bill.”
“What?” I said
“Go get the damn PD-2s! I’m not paying you to stand here crapping your pants.”
A bit dumbfounded I turned and went to get the case of adaptors. I found it without incident, stocked the empty shelf, and returned to pulling orders.
It was quiet the next few minutes. Just the sound of smaller boxes being put into bigger ones, the air stapler sealing those boxes and the tear of UPS labels. Finally, I couldn’t stand it and asked “Alright, I’ll bite. Who’s Bill?”
Joe looked up from the UPS book and said “Bill was a worker who died when the warehouse was being built. You’ll get used to him or you’ll find work somewhere else.”
I worked the warehouse for several more years before moving to tech support and had several other weird things happen. Nothing consistent or overly scary, just a random tap or the feeling that someone was watching or catching the fleeting glimpse of someone going around a corner when you think you’re alone. I never did buy the whole “Bill” story, I always thought it was just my mind playing tricks on me.
A Friendly Hello
Eventually I worked my way into the Marketing Team. In 2010 I was putting together a slide deck to celebrate Aiphone’s 40th anniversary. In digging through a box of old pictures detailing the construction of our office in the late seventies, I stumbled upon a copy of an article clipped from our local paper, The Journal American. It detailed how a fifteen–ton wall had fallen and killed a carpenter named William Cole. I finally believed the “Bill” story.
We moved to our current building in Redmond just a few years later but until then, every time I walked into that warehouse I’d say, “Hi Bill, how ya doing?” and he never bothered me again.
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