Sep 24, 2026 · 58 min · 14 segments
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Silas DeanHost
And the people in my life who know about this story, they still ask me to bring it up time and time again to share it with those who have never heard it.
I had what I think might be probably the creepiest closing shift that anyone has ever had who has worked in a department store.
I had graduated and decided that I was gonna give myself the summer to return to the job that I would usually work on the summer breaks before I was really gonna hit the ground running with the job applications at the start of the fall.
I was still living at home at the time with my parents, and honestly, my final semester...
So having an easy summer job working retail took a lot of stress off my shoulders.
Occasionally, I was an opener, and I would help unlock the store and maybe work my department.
On this one particular night, I had an experience, and the more I think about it, the scarier it seems to feel it each and every time I remember.
It was a Thursday night, and I was on the closing shift with a few other coworkers.
When I think back on the day, nothing about the shift felt particularly strange or off or really anything like that.
It just felt like an ordinary day, and it was actually a pretty slow day in our store.
A big part of the closing shifts for us, of course, was to close up the registers, clean up any of the merchandise around our departments, and do a final walkthrough.
Admittedly, I don't think I took the job with as much seriousness as my coworkers, but most of them worked a lot more than I did.
But I can admit now that I was certainly cutting corners, one of which was dressing room checks.
I'm not sure if it was like this at any of our other stores, but when we were right around time to close or maybe even past close, we would already shut off some of the lights throughout the store because it just made lockup a little bit easier.
And the people in my life who know about this story, they still ask me to bring it up time and time again to share it with those who have never heard it.
I had what I think might be probably the creepiest closing shift that anyone has ever had who has worked in a department store.
I had graduated and decided that I was gonna give myself the summer to return to the job that I would usually work on the summer breaks before I was really gonna hit the ground running with the job applications at the start of the fall.
I was still living at home at the time with my parents, and honestly, my final semester...
So having an easy summer job working retail took a lot of stress off my shoulders.
Occasionally, I was an opener, and I would help unlock the store and maybe work my department.
On this one particular night, I had an experience, and the more I think about it, the scarier it seems to feel it each and every time I remember.
It was a Thursday night, and I was on the closing shift with a few other coworkers.
When I think back on the day, nothing about the shift felt particularly strange or off or really anything like that.
It just felt like an ordinary day, and it was actually a pretty slow day in our store.
A big part of the closing shifts for us, of course, was to close up the registers, clean up any of the merchandise around our departments, and do a final walkthrough.
Admittedly, I don't think I took the job with as much seriousness as my coworkers, but most of them worked a lot more than I did.
But I can admit now that I was certainly cutting corners, one of which was dressing room checks.
I'm not sure if it was like this at any of our other stores, but when we were right around time to close or maybe even past close, we would already shut off some of the lights throughout the store because it just made lockup a little bit easier.
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