Living & Working in Great Places

What Was Your Strangest Encounter

Everyone that has ever worked in a Cool Work Place has had a strange encounter. Tell what your strangest encounter was, where, and what happened?

Tags: encounter, strangest

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Permalink Reply by Dominic on February 4, 2009 at 3:00pm: I had a friend in yellowstone who woke up to find his roomate urinating on him!!! I lil to drunk to find the bathroom.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by reggiecohen on February 4, 2009 at 3:09pm: i was working at princess in 03 walking down to the edr about 8pm saw an bear we just look at each other and the bear just walk away guess he didnt like dark meat; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Dominic on February 4, 2009 at 3:13pm: While working in yellowstone I had a guest ask me what time the put the animals back in there cages!!!!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by reggiecohen on February 4, 2009 at 3:15pm: when i was working at este park ymca in 05 someone ask if we can turn off the waterfalls cause it was making to much noise; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Carol J Stahl on February 4, 2009 at 7:00pm: I sure had a good laugh at all of these experiences. Thanks ! This will be my first season working and I am looking forward to a good laugh and a good experience. I will be at Mt Rushmore.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Joseph Herzig on February 4, 2009 at 8:22pm: Last year at Crater lake I was hiking out of the caldera in mid September after working on the lake all day during boat ops shutdown. I hiked out on the 1.1 mile trail making the usual ~800 ft. elevation climb. Two others soon followed me, one driving the utility tractor and trailer. Within about 10-15 minutes a 3 ft diameter 100 ft tall tree careened down from the rim, top first and skidded down the steep caldera slope and across the trail filling the trail cut with rubble. It dislodged a enormous rock about 10 ft x 10 ft x 20 ft and it came down and lodged against a couple of trees on the uphill side of the trail. close call !!!!! Luckily being late in the year there were not many visitors about.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kimberly Barnes on February 7, 2009 at 10:02am: This wasn't at a cool place but still qualifies as a strange experience. My friend Wendy and I were working the front desk at a local hotel (Bentonville Arkansas) one very cold January day. A gentleman rode up to the front door on a bike and came inside. Now this guy was a little worn looking, carrying a battered backpack, and needing a good washup. In his hand he was holding a small tattered piece of paper that he kept fiddling with and rubbing in his hands. He proceeded to tell us that he needed to call a tow truck. He handed me the piece of paper which had a number on it that I recognized as being at the opposite end of the state (diffirent area code). I told him that if he needed a tow we could find some one more local but he insisted that I needed to call this number. We then asked him where his vechicle was to which he just shifted around on his feet and could not answer. The worst thing was he would not leave and we finally had to call security. I felt horrible because it was obvious the man was not in his right mind. As soon as he saw security he left, hopping onto his bike and riding away. Wendy and I both watched for him around town but we have never seen him again.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Grant Douglas Purcell on February 9, 2009 at 10:57am: One busy morning while working the front desk (and small grocery and gift shop) at Sol-Duc Hot Springs in Olympic Ntl. Park, a lady butted in line asking if she could use the phone. I asked her if it was an emergency and told her that there are pay phones outside. She said that she had the number for George Bush and needed to call him, but she had to go outside first. She said, "I'll be back in a minute and I expect to use the phone." Now, there were tons of guests around and the GM was standing right next to me having a conversation with a gent from RV Magazine. I was speechless. Tons of people were staring. Then, thankfully, a woman looking at postcards says, "Was she SERIOUS?" I said, "I hope so," to which people laughed, and went about my business. Five minutes later she comes back in asking to use the phone. I told her she'd have to use the payphones. She leaves then comes back a couple minutes later with a ladies jacket from the gift shop. She says, "Here's thirty dollars. It doesn't have a price tag on it but I'm sure that's what it costs." I told her that I'd check the price just to make sure she wasn't paying too much. Really, I figured that it cost more than that. I told her that it was forty-five and she said she didn't have that much so she'd get something else. She comes back with a book and paid for it. "Thank God," I thought. This woman will finally leave me alone, but no. She comes back every five minutes for the next thirty with armfuls of stuff, asking me to put it on layaway. As she's setting the stuff down she's going on and on about how George Addison III would love this and how he would love that. These are all kids clothes and toys. She assures me that George Addison Jr. will be in to pay for it in a bit. After four armfuls of crap I finally tell her that the max amt. for layaway is twenty-five items. She sighs then walks outside with her dog.

Once the chaos at the front desk had finished, I told my co-worker that I was going to have a smoke. I went outside to the smoke pit, had a cig, then came around front to go in the front door. I look out into the parking lot and that lady is walking her dog in the pouring down rain singing "Singing in the Rain." But she's not just singing softly to herself. She is yelling this song, "I'M SINGING IN THE RAIN!!!!!! JUST SINGING IN THE RAIN!!!!!! WHAT A GLORIOUS FEELING!!!!!......" and on, and on. I went upstairs and told the GM about her, asking if I should kick her out. I figured she was either drunk or crazy... or both. She said, "no, no. I'll just call the ranger." She calls the ranger and goes outside to see whats up. The lady was getting in her car, so the GM took down her tag number because she may be drunk and dangerous. I didn't hear anything about it for the rest of the day, and thought it was over with.

That night at about 1:00 am I woke up to my roommate explaining to someone where the bathroom is, and thought to myself, "I know its not that crazy bitch from earlier." I ask him what it was and sure enough he explained that a woman in a blue raincoat with a chihuahua was looking for a bathroom. Now, mind you, the resort closes at ten and there are no public bathrooms sans the ones at the campgrounds. Employees sleep in the upstairs of the main lodge and guests stay in studio cabins. She had come into the employee area looking for a fucking bathroom. So I go to the women's bathroom, no one there. I go into the lounge, no one there. Walk around the hall for a minute then start to give up and go to my room which is right next to the stairs. I look down the stairwell and there is that crazy lady trying to break into the kitchen. She doesn't notice me so I say, "Excuse me. What the FUCK are you doing?" She starts to say, "I'm just..." and I say, "No. You need to get the fuck out of here right now or I'm calling the ranger on you." She says, "You're gonna call the CRAZY eagle ranger on me?" I said, "Yeah. Thats exactly what I'm gonna do. Get the fuck out of here." She turns and walks away.
Now half the employees are awake from the commotion and we decide that this crazy bitch might just try to walk into a guest's cabin, scaring the shit out of them, and causing a whole shit storm for the resort. We arm ourselves with baseball bats and other blunt objects then go on a crazy-person hunt. We couldn't find her, so we woke up the MOD and told him the story. He calls the ranger and gives him the license plate number. The next morning, the rangers found her at a gas station about forty miles away (the nearest one), and she had been there for over two hours apparently harassing customers. After talking with her for an hour, the rangers determined that she wasn't dangerous, just bat-shit crazy. They took her to her house, told her that if she ever came back to Sol-Duc she'd be arrested, and told her family members about the incident. Apparently, she had just quit taking her medication. They instituted her, and we didn't hear about it again.

Working in a resort gives you stories that you couldn't make up if you wanted to.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Brenda on February 9, 2009 at 11:19am: I can tell you another story, but this one was not a guest but an employee. It was my First season working at a national park (Yellowstone). I was working at Mammoth in the Terrace Grill and they had hired this guy on who kept following several of us around, making weird statements such as he could turn a cigarette but into a bomb. Well as time went on he started popping up every where I went such as the gift shop standing just in back of a cloths rack staring dead at me as I browsed through the gift shop. Eventually I had to wright up a report on him and turn it in. I don't know what else he had pulled but he was called in to a meeting and next we knew the rangers were making him march in front of the jeep out of Mammoth Hot springs. They put most of his bags in the truck and made him walk right down the middle of the road at the employee area in front of everyone. people were filling out of work and out of the dorms just to watch. The entire location just came to a complete stop when they took him out. A number of times he had slipped notes under my door in the middle of the night which I turned into the asst manager of the grill. I can't remember the whole story but I know he got into a big fist fight on the back dock and was knocked right off the dock.; ▶ Reply to This