L.A. Security

There is never any telling what experiences lie behind old eyes. Not long ago I had an older woman and her daughter on my tour. She said that she'd worked security in Los Angles for many years, starting in the 1960s. In many of the buildings she worked alone, in isolated areas, at all hours. When she first started as a young woman she had an desk in the basement of an L.A. high rise. During her regular rounds there was one room that always blew cold air when she walked through. You would've thought it was the air conditioning, but when she turned that off she found the air was coming from the door frame itself. One night she felt a presence so strongly in the basement that she said "If there is something here close the door." A door in the basement slammed shut.

During another incidence she was walking through a hall with lots of other people around. She passed a man in a suit and narrow tie, just like every other business man in the 1960s. As they passed she smiled and said hello. Getting no response from him, she was perturbed, then she realized that the man didn't have an id on. As everyone was required to have an id and she was security, she turned around and attempted to follow him. She searched the building and could not find the man anywhere. Later she was chatting with one of the regulars and mentioned this strange encounter and the regular described the man before she could. Apparently this was a familiar sightings in the building.

In still another security assignment she found herself in a nursing facility adjacent to a hospital. The intention was that if any of the residents had a medical issue an ambulance would not have to be called, emergency personnel could simply walk over. It seemed like a great job. The first night when she arrived they sat her at the front desk and encouraged her to do whatever she wanted: watch TV, eat, talk on the phone, read a book. Generally employers did not want security to do these things. At first she thought it was just her good luck, then as the bustle of the day died down and she was surrounded by silence, she began to here noises: knocking at the door, footsteps coming down the stairs. She didn't want to complain because there were so few women working in security, she was afraid of being accused of being weak. After working there for sometime and dismissing the regular noises, one night she heard a knock down fight in the kitchen. Pans flying, things crashing, bodies hitting the floor. She ran to check it out and the kitchen was empty. When her supervisor asked her how she was doing at the job she just smiled and said everything was fine. He was impressed and told her that none of the men would work there. She was the only guard willing to do the job.

Years later she became a supervisor. At a big office building on Wilshire Blvd she could not keep a security guard. They had to work at night in the basement and she kept having to replace them. As a supervisor she had to do rounds, going from location to location checking on security guards. Generally guards were happy to be rid of her, but when she went to this building the guard invited her in and chatted insistently to get her to stay. At first she thought it was just a friendly gesture, but as weeks went by he began to tell her that he heard voices in the building. He started bringing a bible with him to work and reciting verses to drown out the voices. Eventually he was overwhelmed by it all and ran through the front doors, crashing through the glass and barrelling into traffic on the boulevard outside.