The Ghost of 1953 - An Installation Story 

Posted by: RichardL // Improving NOI through water/energy conservation

It appeared to be a typical installation—or so it seemed. The bright and crisp fall morning of Santa Monica, California, boasted the fragrant perfume of night blooming jasmine coalesced with ocean air.

 

Our technical manager was in the field at an apartment complex to install our toilet sensors. He divvied up the number of units between himself and another installer and proceeded accordingly. The first floor was a breeze. Installation went like clockwork. The second floor is when things got interesting …

 

The interior design varied slightly from unit to unit as tenants moved in and out due to renovations and updates but in general, a quaint charm prevailed. Toward the end of the second floor, our technical manager entered the second to last unit and was greeted by a contemporary unit featuring high-tech appliances, cool grey tones and the crisp lines associated with modern design. A little out of the ordinary, but nothing crazy.

 

Then, the last unit installation. Our technical manager knocked on the door but no one answered. Using the master key, he entered slowly. The door creaked like the hinges hadn’t been oiled since Eisenhower was president. He announced himself but no one responded. He proceeded to enter… the twilight zone.

 

It was if he had traveled back in time. The apartment was dark and dingy. It smelled of stale cigarette butts and bad memories. “Hello?” he called out. No one responded. What little light penetrated the moth-ridden curtains revealed pale yellow walls—in fact, most everything in the apartment was pale yellow, furniture and décor. Was it the result of decades of cigarette smoke or had the place not been updated since 1953?

 

He felt a presence but no one was visible. The hairs on the back of his neck stood at attention. Let me just install the device and get the hell out of here he said to himself.

 

He went into the bathroom and positioned himself on the filthy linoleum floor. To install the device, he had to get underneath the toilet bowl, which put him in a vulnerable position. Like the rest of the apartment, the toilet hadn’t been updated in decades so he struggled to replace the flex line before installing the device.

 

The front door creaked. “Hello?” he called out again. He heard movement … footsteps? No one answered. He didn’t want to scare the tenant so he got up to greet him or her. Or maybe it was a pet, a cat that hid itself when he first arrived.

 

He went out to the main room. No one was there. No pets. The front door was closed. Again, he felt a presence. Goosebumps ran the lengths of his arms. Completely spooked, he went back into the bathroom and finished up the installation, looking over his shoulder several times.

Later in the truck heading home, the other installer turned to our technical manager who was pale with a distant look in his eyes. “You’ve looked like you’ve seen a ghost!” he said.

 

“I don’t want to talk about it,” said our technical manager. He never returned to the location.




Image Credit: LESCO Home Service Company: Diagnosing Spooky Toilet Sounds - Spooky Plumbing Problems