Civil War Spirits Playing Tricks with Radio

Tuesday, July 15, 2008, 12:05 a.m.

I was closing the lobby and preparing to start the hotel audit when I received a frantic call from one of the guests.  The call came from a room located in the lower section of the hotel which sits adjacent to our fitness center (the room shares a common wall).

The guest relayed to me that they had been in their room since early evening, but they had suddenly started hearing loud talking and music being played in the fitness room.  She asked me if we allowed guests to use the fitness center after midnight and I quickly replied that we did not.  I asked her if her husband was dressed and asked if he would meet me outside their room to check on it.  She readily agreed.  I ran to retrieve the key to the fitness center and proceeded down to the location. 

When I arrived, they were both waiting outside their room for me.  I unlocked the door to the fitness center and turned on the lights.  The gentleman accompanied me inside and we both saw that there was no one there.  I immediately noticed that there was a plug-in radio sitting on a window sill.  The radio was turned on and it was, indeed, playing very loud music.  The gentleman and I both examined the radio and I proceeded to turn it off.  The gentleman wanted to take another look at the radio and I handed it to him.  He examined it, saw that the button was in the "off" position and said:  "That should do it."  I then turned off the lights and locked the door.

I stood outside for a few minutes chatting with the couple.  While we were talking, we all heard the music start to play once again.  Incredulously, I asked:  "Do you hear that?"  We all looked at the door and could not believe it.  I unlocked the door, turned on the lights, and the gentleman and I, once again, stepped inside to investigate the disturbance.  I immediately walked over to the radio, picked it up and saw that the button was in the "off" position, and yet the radio continued to play loudly.  I handed the radio to the gentleman and he was shocked.  That's it!  I'm pulling the plug.  Once again, I turned off the lights and locked up the fitness center.

We all decided to stand outside and see just what, if anything, would happen next.  Much to everyone's shock, we all heard that radio playing loud music once again.  Once again, I unlocked the door, turned on the lights and walked over to the unplugged radio.  This time, however, as soon as we approached the radio, the music stopped playing.  Okay, you boys, you are having too much fun tonight!  I have work to do and these people would like to get some sleep!  I grabbed the offending radio, turned off the lights and locked the fitness center door.  The guests, thankfully, we thrilled to have such a story to tell their friends about their visit to our hotel and I bid them a cheerful goodnight.

I took the radio back to the office with me.  It never made another peep that night.

When I was relating this incident to one of the housekeepers in the morning, she laughed and told me that the same thing happens to the radio that is kept in the laundry room.  The housekeeper told me that it is constantly turning itself on, blasting out music, and/or turning itself off.   She said that it freaks out the laundry room staff.  I told her:  "Honey, they should be here in the dead of night like I am.  That's nothing!"