Ghost, Hauntings »

The Toys ‘R’ Us Ghost

This picture was reportedly taken with infrared film during an investigation at the Sunnyvale, California, Toys ‘R’ Us store. Witnesses claimed the man leaning against the wall was not visible and did not appear in photos taken at the same time with normal film. A June 1991 Adweek article tells the tale:“The children have left, and the din has subsided. Another hard day’s shopping is history at the Sunnyvale, California, branch of Toys ‘R’ Us. Yet there might be activity inside the vast, silent emporium this midnight, none of which has to do with the straightforward business of retailing.

“Inside, it is said, toys topple from the their shelves. A skateboard rolls down an aisle, clanking aimlessly into a wall. But nobody is in this Toys ‘R’ Us this midnight. Or anyway, nobody alive. In the heart of high-tech Silicon Valley, could there really be such a thing as a haunted retail outlet? ‘I’m a skeptical person,’ says Toys ‘R’ Us assistant store director Jeff Linden. ‘But something’s definitely happening here.’

“In the past few years, store management has tried to get to the bottom of several curious developments. Linden recounts stories of objects flying 20 feet through the air and hitting employees. Shelves left neat in a locked store have been found in disarray the next morning. And then there was the talking doll that cried ‘mama’ over and over–but would only do so when put in a locked box…But that doesn’t mean that store workers laugh off the matter. ‘Some of our employees are spooked,’ Linden says. ‘They won’t go into certain parts of the store alone.’ He hastens to add that the “ghost” hasn’t affected day-to-day store operations in any tangible way. Yet the incidents were taken seriously enough that management let a local psychic [Sylvia Brown] visit the store.”

It was this 1978 investigation that yielded the infrared photograph and information about the identity of the ghost. According to Brown, the ghost told her he was named John (or Johan) Johnson. At the turn of the 20th century, he was a mentally handicapped worker on a ranch at the current site of the store. He was smitten with Elizabeth Yuba Murphy Tafee, daughter of the owner. His love was not returned and after his death from an accidental leg wound many years later, he remains tied to the site. To date, however, this information has not been verified in the historic record.

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