Ghosts Trip Silent Motion Detector Alarms!

Monday, November 24, 2008, 4:07 p.m.

Attached to General Lee's Headquarters, which which is located on hotel property and which houses a museum on the lower level, is a gift shop.  A guest or visitor must go through the gift shop in order to visit the museum.  The museum and gift shop are open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. from approximately March 1st to November 22. 

As I was driving into work today, I was contemplating the fact that the soldier spirits at the hotel had not been very active as of late.  As I was walking up to the lobby building, I actually said out loud:  "Boys, you haven't done anything lately.  Don't you love me anymore?"  Be careful what you ask for!

When I arrived, it was the shift change and the only people left in the building were myself and the day manager.  She was in the process of informing me of all the things that I needed to know for the upcoming night, when the phone rang.  The security company was on the phone letting us know that the silent alarm in the workshop, which is located behind the hotel, had been tripped.  I immediately contacted one of the maintenance men, who was still on the hotel grounds, and he went down to investigate the cause of the silent alarm.  He found nothing amiss.

At approximately 6:05 p.m., I was going over some paperwork in the inner office, when the museum/gift shop alarm went off.  The alarm itself is very loud and is wired to be heard in the lobby building.  The security company immediately called and informed me that the motion detectors in the museum/gift shop had been tripped.

Within three minutes, my maintenance man was sent to go through the museum and gift shop.  After a careful inspection of the building, he could find nothing that would have tripped any of the motion detectors.  He even checked the heating system that may have inadvertently blown hot air over one of the sensors.  Since the building had already been closed for the season, he thought perhaps the last staff person in there may have forgotten to shut down the system.  After checking all the motion detectors, he realized that none of them are located anywhere near the heating system or air conditioning vents and that the entire system had been turned off for the season.

When the maintenance man returned and explained everything to me, he was puzzled.  He said:  "Do you think it was a ghost?"  I said:  "Actually, yes, I do."

He looked at me as if I was nuts and left.

At 6:51 p.m., I was standing at the front lobby counter checking in an elderly gentleman.  I suddenly heard a loud click behind me.  The lobby lights immediately went out.  The guest asked me if one of the other employees was playing a prank by shutting off the lobby lights.  I informed him that I was the only person working in the building at this time.

I then explained to the guest that there is a panel on the other side of the wall behind me which houses the light switches for the entire building and the outside lights.  I left the guest to look at that panel inside the inner office and found the panel closed.  When I opened it, I discovered that the light switch for the lobby lights had been flipped into the "off" position.  I flipped the switch back on and went back to the guest.  I explained to the guest that the switches are hard to snap into place and cannot slip on their own.  The gentleman was shocked and asked me to finish up the check in process as quickly as possible.  He wanted out of there!

At 9:07 p.m., I was finishing up some early audit paperwork, when the museum/gift shop alarm went off again.  Once again, the security company called and informed me that the motion detectors indicated that someone had tripped the sensors.  Once again, my maintenance man was inside the museum/gift shop in minutes.  Yes, you guessed it!  The maintenance man told me that there was no one inside the museum/gift shop and he could find nothing that would trip those motion sensors.  This time, however, he didn't say anything to me about "ghosts."  I just smiled at him when he came to me with his report and he quickly left.

The only other times the motion sensors have gone off have been in the dead of winter when it is extremely windy.  The hotel sits out on the first day's battlefield and it is wide open for many miles.  When the high winds kick up, it will often set off the alarms in the museum/gift shop.  There was no wind on this night.

Okay, my soldier spirit friends, I have gotten the message!  You are still here.  No more alarms please.  It scares the crap out of me when they go off.

There were no more alarms going off this night.