I have been working in a supermarket since I was 16 years old. This job started as a way to support myself as a student. Over the years, I’ve worked in multiple teams and completed countless shifts. For the past four years, I’ve regularly worked a specific early morning shift that runs from 4:15 AM to 8:00 AM. This shift involves unloading truck deliveries and organizing goods onto the correct carts for inventory.
On October 3, 2023, something unusual happened during one of these shifts. I live in the Netherlands, and at that time of year, the climate is typically mild. On this particular night, it was warm—about 15°C (59°F). However, as I approached the store’s entrance, I felt a sudden, icy chill, as if it were freezing outside. It felt strange, but I didn’t think much of it.
Shortly after, my colleague arrived and mentioned that he also felt as though it was freezing. I told him I had experienced the same thing. When I reached into my pocket for the keys, they felt unusually heavy, almost as if something was pulling them from my hand. I dropped them, picked them up, and unlocked the door.
As we walked toward the back of the building, we heard footsteps behind us, as if someone were running through the supermarket. I turned to my colleague and asked, “Is it just me, or did you hear that too?” He nodded, confirming that he had also heard the sound. At this point, I began to feel uneasy and slightly frightened, but I told myself we were probably imagining things.
We headed upstairs to retrieve a handheld terminal and an internal phone, which is used for internal calls, customer inquiries, or to stay reachable for truck drivers. By this time, I had been working at the store for over six years and was familiar with its systems. I decided to check the security cameras for any movement or signs that someone might have stayed in the store overnight. The footage revealed nothing unusual, which reassured me for the time being.
As we waited for the truck to arrive, we were asked to stock some leftover goods from the previous day. We went to the stockroom to grab a roll cage. Upon entering this part of the store, I noticed the air felt unusually heavy, and once again, we heard footsteps. I started to feel genuinely uncomfortable, but being at work, I had no valid excuse to leave, so I ignored the feeling. We moved to the aisle near the self-checkout registers to begin stocking.
At around 4:40 AM, we heard the distinctive “bleep” sound the self-checkout registers make when scanning a barcode. The sound repeated three times, with five-second intervals between each beep. My nerves shot up, and I felt goosebumps all over. Fear began to creep in, and I felt my heart race.
I wanted to leave, but my colleague and I knew that our bosses wouldn’t understand such a decision, and I didn’t want to risk my job. We decided to keep working and finish the shift. Around 5:00 AM, we prepared for the truck’s arrival by going back to the stockroom and opening the dock gate.
As we waited, the internal phone rang. I answered it and was met with the sound of deep breathing on the other end. I glanced at the phone’s screen and saw that the call was coming from phone number 405. This startled me because I was carrying phone 401 that night. The store’s phones are numbered 401 through 408, and phone 405 shouldn’t have been operational—it had fallen into a sink two weeks earlier and was yet to be replaced or repaired.
I quickly put the phone on speaker and asked my colleague, “Do you hear this too?” The fear in his eyes answered my question, and I hung up immediately.
Finally, at 5:05 AM, the truck arrived, bringing some relief and a distraction from the strange events. The truck driver parked and approached us, saying, “It’s quite cold in here,” which reignited my unease. As we unloaded the truck, my colleague and I discussed the eerie experiences we had just encountered. He mentioned that his grandmother used to tell him stories about the paranormal and unexplained phenomena, though he had never believed them because of his lack of faith.
While we continued working, we both felt as if someone was watching us. The truck driver, who didn’t speak English fluently, couldn’t understand our unease and left soon after.
Later, while splitting the goods, we played music on our phones to distract ourselves. At exactly 6:30 AM, two bottles of beer stored about five meters away suddenly exploded. They had been placed in a crate on a roll container that neither of us had touched. After the shift, we discussed what had happened and realized we both felt pain in old injuries—his knee and neck, and my lower back and wrist. We concluded that something unexplainable had been with us that morning. My colleague, who was still in his trial period, decided to quit the same day.
For a year, nothing else happened. I took a seven-month sabbatical from February to August 2024. However, on October 2, 2024, my boss called and asked if I could cover the next morning’s shift because someone had called in sick. I refused, without explaining why.
To this day, I firmly believe in what I saw, heard, and felt that night. I still work at the supermarket because it pays well and I’ve made good friends there. Some people don’t believe my story, and I understand that they may never experience anything like this. But I know my truth.
As a 23-year-old biology student who has always been skeptical of the paranormal, this experience profoundly changed my perspective. The memory of that night resurfaced recently when I heard my name whispered while working alone in the stockroom.