Inside a peculiar West Los Angeles office building, stories of the weird and creepy abound…

The Kelsey National Corporation building has been standing across from the Santa Monica airport since the late 1950’s. The building itself is peculiar enough with its strangely placed staircases, multiple levels, shadowy hallways, wooden frame and drainage pipes built into the very walls.

According to historical documents, underneath its foundation are small ponds with no explainable source. Buildings with such nearby water sources usually have extensive mold problems, however, a recent check of the structure revealed almost no mold growth at all.

The building was purportedly built by a group of architects, but my theory is that it was constructed by munchkins, as the light switches in most of the rooms are only waist high. The building has served as a restaurant and the land its stands on, a storage area for petrol.

Being the resident IT guy, I have spent many late nights at this office building, but have experienced nothing out of the ordinary, but then again, I don’t spook that easily.

An occurrence that takes place at random times with our phones is the extent of my experience with the supernatural. It is obviously a technical issue; however, it’s the quintessential ghost in the machine scenario. Evidently our phones will “call” each other. According to reports (one even being from my colleague in IT) they will receive a call from another staff member. Here is how the conversation plays out:

*Tom’s phone rings, he picks up

Tom: “Hello?”

Jane: “Hello?”

Tom: “Hey, you just called me. What’s up?”

Jane: “I didn’t call you; I thought you were calling me?”

Tom: “Nah, my phone rang and I picked it up. You didn’t call me?”

Jane: “No.”

Tom: “Weird.”

I’ve worked here for almost two years and this has only been reported to me two or three times. Not so weird you say? Well, that was just to whet your hair-raising appetites, try these stories.

Carlos, one of our accountants, stays late some nights and one story did stand out, mainly because it happened during the day and he had an observable physical reaction to the experience.

Carlos recounts: “I was going to the north side of the building to use the restroom there. On the way, I distinctly heard someone say ‘Carlos’, in sort of a whispered tone. It was mid day, around 1 or 2 o’clock so I assumed it was one of the workers in the area.”

“I decided to check with them on the way back to my cubical, which is on the upper floors. I asked everyone I could think of in the area, and even some of them outside the area, who sometimes take their lunch on that side of the building, if they had called me a few minutes ago.”

“None of them could recall calling my name. When I returned to my cubical, my boss asked me, jokingly of course, if I had seen a ghost. I told him, no, but I think I heard one.”

Daniel , another of our accountants, had a couple things happen to him that where truly freaky. The men’s bathroom seems to be a center of activity.

Daniel recounts: “It was about 6am when I got here and I had to go to the restroom. I passed Darrel (the only other person here at the time) on the way. When you enter the restroom the door has a controlled swing back to the door jam, and when it reaches that position, it always does a little bounce that creates a distinctive sound. “

“The door had closed behind me and I was taking care of business, when I heard the door squeak open again. I glanced back, but saw no one enter. I exited the restroom and went back down the stairs to where Darrel sat.”

“‘Did you just come up to the restroom?’ He shook his head that he hadn’t. We were still the only staff in the building.”

 

Daniel continues: “One morning I entered the building early again to find Svetlana and Darrel wandering through the building yelling ‘Is anyone in the building?’”

“Evidently, the building had been inaccessible that morning. While trying all the doors, from outside Darrel and Svetlana saw what they thought was someone sitting at a desk inside the building, but the ‘person’ ignored their attempts to gain its attention to let them in.”

“Finally, they were able to gain access, but when they got to the desk in question, there was no one there.”

“The weirdest experience was about midday, when I went down to the lower level of the building (affectionately called the dungeon) to find my friend for lunch. A thorough search of the area revealed he was not there, so I went back up stairs.”

“For some reason, I glanced behind me when I was leaving the area and saw a shadow pass by in the hallway, heading for the back door. I called out, thinking it was my friend, but there was no answer and no one exited the door.”

“I searched the area again, thinking my friend was down there and I had just missed him, but all the rooms were empty. He had been upstairs in the lunchroom eating.”

Svetlana recalls : “I arrived early one morning and saw that Darrel could not get into the building. He was locked out but said he saw some lights on. We finally got into the building and thought we heard someone walking around on the upper floors.”

“After a search of the area, we could find no one. As we passed by one of the copy machines, going back to our cubicles, we heard the machine start up on its own. “

“My creepiest experience, however, was when I was here alone one morning. I was sitting at my desk and heard the sound of someone breathing close behind me. It sounded like someone having an asthma attack.”

“I also felt a chilling sensation on the back of my neck, but (of course) when I turned around there was nobody there. I called out several times, but got no answer.”

The verdict as to the true nature of this building is still out, but even a skeptic such as myself must admit that some of the experiences detailed here are interesting. Coupled with some of the strange facts about the location, the possibility of the unknown is both compelling, and fun!

Although I work for Kelsey National Corporation, the company does not, to my knowledge, officially recognize the presence of any supernatural entities within the confines of its property. The views expressed in this article are expressly those of the interviewee and are not recognized by the Corporation or its management.