I work the 3-11 shift at a seasonally driven hotel. In the off season (October-May), we go from two people at the front desk each shift to one person. I’m the supervisor, so I get stuck alone a lot. Last February-ish, on a Monday, around 10:00 P.M., the phone rings. I answer with my usual hotel spiel, “Thank you for calling the [name of hotel], how can I help you?” On the other end of the line was an Asian guy who spoke little English.

He paused for a second before asking me something. “I’m sorry sir I only speak English, I can transfer you to reservations, they have translators.” CLICK. Dude hangs up on me.

Now my shift ends in an hour. I have a system down, where I do all my closing reports, count my bank, all that stuff to get ready to get outta there. In the middle of counting my bank, phone rings again. “Thank you for calling [name of hotel], how can I help you?” It was the same guy! At this point I’m a little annoyed, and I transfer him straight to reservations so they can find someone who understands what he wants. Not five seconds after I transfer him, the phone rings again. It’s the Damn guy only this time, in very broken English, he asks to talk to Cho. “I don’t have a Cho who works here, is he a guest with us?” The guy is talking very fast to someone in the background when a younger guy gets on the phone. “I’m very sorry to bother you but my father is confused, who am I speaking to?” I’m getting more annoyed by the second. Is it time for me to go yet?! “This is the [name of hotel], who are you guys trying to reach?”

The son doesn’t say anything for a second, then I hear him speaking to his dad in the background. After a few seconds of (what sounds like) arguing, the son comes back, apologizes for bothering me, and hangs up. Phone rings again. It’s the son.

“Look, ma’am, I’m really sorry but I’m not trying to call you, we have been trying to call my dad’s best friend Cho all night. He’s had the same phone number for years and we have never had a problem. Only the past couple of times it reroutes us to you.”

I tell him what my phone number is, and he tells me the number he’s trying to dial. I recognize it as a cell phone number from my state, but it shouldn’t reroute to my hotel. I get the son's number, tell him I’ll try dialing Cho’s number, and I’ll let him know. Dial up Mr. Cho, and instead of going to voicemail, it takes me to my hotels extension options, where if you hit 0 you’ll ring the front desk. Ok, this is getting weird. I call the kid back and tell him my findings. The family on the other end is in a panic when the son tells me the reason why they need to get a hold of Cho.

“Look, ma’am, I don’t mean to freak you out but Cho was fired from his job yesterday and he’s been acting very strange ever since.

This morning he texted my dad basically a suicide note, thanking him for being such a good friend, asking him to look out for his wife and daughter, and that he hopes they meet again one day. Cho hasn’t answered any calls since then. We talked to his daughter a few hours ago and she says he hasn’t been home all day, and their hand gun and rifle are both missing. Is there any way you can look up to see if he’s staying there or maybe you know something?”

At this point I’m freaking out. It’s dead quiet in the hotel, I have maybe 10 rooms in house. It’s just me and the housekeeper. I know for a fact that we haven’t had an Asian gentleman check in with us in over a week, and I checked in almost everyone who came in that day, I know there is no Mr. Cho at my hotel. I apologize profusely and explain no one here who fits the description. The best thing to do would be to contact the local police and report a missing person, and maybe call my town's police and report it to them too. I say if I find anything out I’ll call them. They thank me and we disconnect. It’s 10:45 and it's creepy at the hotel. Is it possible someone checked in for him? Are the housekeepers going to walk in to a dead guy in the morning? The overnight guy comes in and I don’t tell him anything. He’s already paranoid and weird to begin with, telling him would make things worse.

Fast forward three days and a body of an unidentified Asian man is found in the bay about two blocks from my hotel. He had a gunshot wound in his head. Later that day he is identified by a family friend as Mr. Cho.

Maybe not scary or supernatural, but definitely the creepiest thing that has ever happened to me.

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